My thoughts on UBOAT

[SquidB]

I've been playing subsims since Silent Hunter. For me the pinacle was SH3 with GWX, Ive played it for years and often come back.

I avoided Uboat whilst it was in early access but when I saw it had been released and was on sale on Steam I thought I'd try it out. I played through the tutorials and it was 'ok'. I was luke warm to it.

Then a couple of weeks later I ramped up the difficulty settings and got some Mods that further added realism. I must say I was blown away.

My favourite warstory from a patrol is when I got depth charged after attacking a convoy and ended up with the boat flooded and leaking on the seabed at 260 meters. The escorts lost me and withdrew, I managed to plug the leaks but the boat was too heavy to surface. Furthermore due to my depth the pump couldnt pump out the water due to the water pressure. I almost quit, but then I thought i would try something.

I turned on the electric compressor, trying to build up the pressure in the boat to force out the water. Of course this used up a lot of my remaining oxygen but I was dead anyway right? Well it worked, and the pump managed to get the boat bouyant again an I managed to surface. It was a total Das Boot moment and an amazing experiance. Since then I've been hooked.

Of course its not perfect but SH3 was far from perfect vanilla. I cant wait to see what the modders manage to do with it. Really looking forward to it getting a mega mod ala GWX.

If youve not tried it or havent for a while I would recommend giving it another go.

[Threadfin]

Good post. I mostly ignored this one through EA, thinking it was sims in subs, which I don't think is too far off the mark. But it, evolved. A couple of weeks before release I thought, why not give it a go. The changes and additions I had been reading about all seemed really good, moving the game in my direction. Glad I did.


Good hunting

[SquidB]

I think the crew 'Sims' aspect really adds something. Seeing the crew getting stressed but overcomming their adversity really adds a human element compared to previous subsims that feel rather sterile and detached.

I hope they build upon the roleplaying aspect, i like passing on news to a crewman that they are a father or dealing with discipline issues. It not the main focus but adds a bit of flavour.

Uboat is so close to GWX all i want added is.

Simple map contacts, just a dot rather than ship icons

The ability to change difficulty settings during a career

More ship types

More crew interactions

Map tools and charts that we get in GWX

[Aktungbby]

sqidB!:Kaleun_Salute: the infamous :subsim: 7-year-itch strikes again...ending your long 'silent run' since 7/23/2017!:yeah:

[ReallyDedPoet]

A couple of weeks before release I thought, why not give it a go. The changes and additions I had been reading about all seemed really good, moving the game in my direction. Glad I did.

Good hunting

:yep:

Had a hell of a patrol earlier today. Tons of possibilities with this one going forward.

[SquidB]

I aslo fired up Onealex's GWX yesterday just to remind myself of what it was like. GWX feels more authentic obviously in terms of whats going on in the patrol and optics tools. But man, after getting used to UBoat's eye candy and interface its a bit of an immersion killer (Not good in a subsim :haha: )

Moving around cardboard cutouts of crewmen because their arent enough crew on the electric engines just felt clunky and took me out of what I was trying to experiance.

Hopefully one day something like GWX will happen in Uboat, then I think we would have WW2 subsim nivarna.

[Threadfin]

Had a hell of a patrol earlier today. Tons of possibilities with this one going forward.


I agree. I talk about the 'bones' with this one. It's a nice, broad base to work with. Between development and mods the future looks bright indeed. Like I said, I doubt I'll fire up Silent Hunter again any time soon, except 6, if it comes. UBOAT is a sim more my style, which is exciting to say since I love SH so much.

[Viking_1957]

Its an immersive game. I've been writing journal reports as the XO.


___
22 February 1941

After our first cruise, many of the crew were suffering. Four deaths was much to bear. After conferring with HQ it was decided that 3 weeks rest in Bavaria was realistic. The wine flowed freely, as did the women. On return we were much refreshed. The ones who simply could not continue were released from service, and I selected new sailors with the help of the XO. All my officers decided to continue with me. Hardship has a way of welding people together.

Our tonnage in the end was good, at nearly 40000, and damage to the boat was repaired within the week. Our coming cruise, we can only hope, will not involve such a close encounter with a British destroyer. We are replenishing supplies and the mood is optimistic. A new cook with a reputation for making life interesting is perhaps helping.

Myself and two of my officers were decorated. WIth the way things turned out we had mixed emotions at this; but they certainly deserved the accolades, and the two who are married were very happy to spend some time with their families. Who knows how long our second cruise will be? But we are anxious to take the fight back to the enemy!

18 March 1941 XOs Log

The Captain took the crew losses very personally on our first cruise. I hoped that the vacation time, and the distance from the battlefield. would work its healing. But as we approach a large convoy on our way to our assigned patrol, I see that the only way forward now is glory or death.

Its midnight and we are running with decks awash on our approach from the rear of the convoy. Hoffmann intends to take out both rear escorts and then have easy pickings for the next hour. I am remembering the prayers my mother taught me as I finger the cross around my neck.

Hoffmann has positioned us between two escorts - one at 1.5km to port, and the other equidistant to starboard. Both are a half kilometre ahead, just visible in the darkness. As we complete the solutions for both targets, he calls for all four tubes to be loaded at 2.5m depth and 74km fast speed. The solution locked, he makes the call and all four eels are on their way! The red lighting feels more eerie now and the sweat is running down into my beard.

20 seconds.. 10.. we hear and feel the first impact, then moments later, the second. The destroyer is shattered and all hands are lost. 20 seconds.. ten.. the first eel for the second target is a dud! 5 seconds more then BOOM! The destroyer has only begun to accelerate when she is stuck in the stern and her engines are shattered. The cheer from the boys is deafening! Now they will believe Hoffmann can do anything. Maybe he can. Maybe it was our desperate prayers. Either way the deep has her victims. We turn into the convoy to begin the nights real carnage, just as on the horizon we see a massive explosion and the sky turns red.

I'm breathing easier and remembering my family. We surface and pick up the pace, feeling confident that we have our enemy by the balls. Not ten minutes later the sky lights up above us like an early dawn. Star shells! We are fully exposed and in the distance we can hear alarm bells. Who will be hunter and hunted tonight. As we dive to periscope depth there is a deathly silence.

[SquidB]

Its an immersive game. I've been writing journal reports as the XO.

That’s great! The game really does make you feel a part of the crew. SH5 tried to do this but fell a bit flat outside a few bits of dialogue.

Uboat just needs a few tweaks to improve the other aspects and it would be perfect

[ReallyDedPoet]

Uboat just needs a few tweaks to improve the other aspects and it would be perfect


:yep:

[les green01]

More I play it more I like it when I get a new computer too replace the one that died I'll get back to playing it

[Raf1394]

The thing i really like with UBOAT is the damage system.
The way you can manage your crew to repair the ship.


Can be a challenge if your at deep depths, having leaks and getting depth charged

[Columbus1997]

I've really been enjoying the game as well. I only put 21 hours in while it was in early access, but then just yesterday, I got hooked and put in 12 hours. I'm recovering from a cold, and had lots of time to play. Haha.

[Aktungbby]

Coumbus1997!:Kaleun_Salute:

[ReallyDedPoet]

Welcome to SUBSIM Columbus1997 :yep::up:

[Raf1394]

Welcome to Subsim!

[Bilge_Rat]

Picked this up on sale. Not sure how I felt about it. Spent the first hour just going WTF!, nitpicking everything and thought about asking for a refund…but…

…it kind of grows on you. It has a lot of interesting concepts and I can see a lot of potential with this game.

[Marko_Ramius]

Hi Bilge Rat,


It was almost the same for me, almost. When one come from SH3 with mods like GWX, it's not surprising to react like this.


I didn't give up and quickly been amazed by what i discovered while playing it. I won't spoil, but i think it's on the way to be a masterpiece. There are things in it that do not exist in the other big titles, and we can expect more.



One very important thing : At the beginning of a career, when we set things like realism and such, this part is absolutely crucial because you won't be able to change them later (in this same career) and it may completely change the feel of your game.


Do not give up :salute:

[Threadfin]

Like anything, it isn't for everyone.

As a long time Silent Hunter fan I tried UBOAT, not expecting it to surpass Silent Hunter, but maybe compliment it. Sims in subs is what I had been expecting, as that was the general buzz around it during development.

There is some of that, of course, with the crew management. But overall I found pretty quickly that I preferred it to what SH is. For me, it has just about everything that makes Silent Hunter great, and plenty more.

Campaigns are the heart of these sims, and I prefer UBOAT to what Silent Hunter offers.

If you want to compare supermods to vanilla UBOAT feel free. But I expect that eventually, UBOAT will have these too and it won't be a contest for me. Your mileage may vary.

[daemonofdecay]

Yeah, I consider it a solid game, and really do hope we see some healthy modding - or that it does well enough that it starts a series.

[Bilge_Rat]

I have been spending a lot of time getting into this game and apart from a few minor quibbles, it is pretty amazing.

Graphics are pretty spectacular. I am able to max them out on my system. Love the crew management aspect. Nice to be able to tweak pretty much anything you fancy that is crew related and it is really immersive, you feel like you are in an actual ship with a living crew. I have been spending a lot of time just looking at the crew buzzing around the sub, at work and play.

The manual targeting system is also very complete, although I have not had a chance to use it much yet. OTOH, based on the Recognition Manual, there does not seem to be many different types of Merchants, compared to say WOLFPACK.

The Vanilla game also seems very complete. Unlike SH 3-4-5, I have not felt the need to mod anything yet.

It is unfortunate it took so long for me to discover this game, but whenever I popped into this forum over the years, the comments always seemed to be mostly negative.

Anyway, back to the bridge of the U48 for me....:arrgh!:

[CaptBones]

I saw it on sale at Steam and bought it a month or so ago. Played through the Tutorials in U-4 and U-48 and was very impressed by much of what it has to offer. But there were just too many things "wrong" to continue until some of the talented modders get a few good "fixes" released and ready to apply. I'm sure there are answers to my issues already available, but I really haven't got the motivation to search for them right now; I'll stick with my library of SH3 and SH4 "Super Mods" for a while longer.

So, what I mean by "wrong" includes these examples of annoyances that really killed the enjoyment for me, right out of the box...yeah, I know it's "nit picking", but I've got plenty of time on my hands to be picking nits!
1. Depth meter and draft: the draft on the surface is not "0" meters and periscope depth is not 6 meters...more than annoying; a ridiculous error.
2. There is no "third gear" in a submarine propulsion plant...good grief!
3. If I was in command and a bunch of random sailors wandered into the Control Room and helped themselves to the Observation Scope, they would all be hung from the nearest yardarm, or periscope shears, the next time we surfaced. Besides that, why on earth are the scopes still fully raised when the boat dives below periscope depth? Do I have to give orders for everything to get done correctly?

Anyway, just "venting". I'll keep watching for the mods that will make the game a real winner IMHO, while also anxiously awaiting the release of GWX Knight's Cross. :Kaleun_Salute:

[Ruby2000]

HI CaptBones,

it's deliberately intended that the depth gauge shows 0 meters, otherwise too many players will have a problem with it. It symbolizes surfaced. It's not a bug, it's a decision made by the devs.

Why don't you give an order not to use the obs-peri? You can generally forbid it in crew-management or directly at the periscope with RMC if it is a short-term order.
No, the periscopes are retracted at a slightly deeper depth. But you have probably already noticed this.

Cheers Ruby :Kaleun_Cheers:

[Subcomfreak]

"forbidding it" on the crew management screen will work in certain situations. HOWEVER WHAT MAKES THE CREW USE THE SCOPE IS HAVING SAILORS ASSIGNED TO AN OFFICE USING THE ATTACK SCOPE. Thus, it is best practice to unassign everyone from the officer on observation after diving and to also forbid anyone from using the periscope.

I think Uboat needs some time to cook. I've enjoyed my 300 hours in it so far. However, back when UBE was a thing and we had a ton of different ships it felt great. Problem is that the game is in active development and things get broke, unbroke, and broke again. I think the game still needs some more time in the oven for the devs to say, "hay guys, here's the game, here's your type IX, we aren't going to radically change anything at this point" and then another year or two for modders to do their thing.


With that said, however, with the flood mechanic and better crew management (and better graphics, let's be honest) and each machine in the boat being functional... in 2-3 years time it will be the top tier sub game in my opinion.