Crew Repairs

[Giesemaschine]

As a salty subsim skipper, I’m loving this darn game!

I would love to see repairs in this game though.

Maybe like the flashlight, we could have a hammer item to equip. When under depth charge attack and a pipe bursts, the crew has to rush and beat away at the damaged part until it’s “repaired” until the compartment is slowly flooded, or maybe a crew member has to run and grab a piece of wood to plug the hole.


Are these features planned? Also, will ee be able to see compartments slowly filling with water? Maybe closing the hatches on compartments to stop flooding?

[derstosstrupp]

Would love to know the answer to these as well. Keep your eye on the Wolfpack League forum for threads for upcoming games - Neal and I and a few guy have been getting together at least once a week for very immersive play, always looking for a few good Männer/Frauen, and your experience is a plus!

[Giesemaschine]

Hahaha I said I simply have some experience, not that I was good

[Elphaba]

Originally Posted by Giesemaschine

As a salty subsim skipper, I’m loving this darn game!

I would love to see repairs in this game though.

Maybe like the flashlight, we could have a hammer item to equip. When under depth charge attack and a pipe bursts, the crew has to rush and beat away at the damaged part until it’s “repaired” until the compartment is slowly flooded, or maybe a crew member has to run and grab a piece of wood to plug the hole.


Are these features planned? Also, will ee be able to see compartments slowly filling with water? Maybe closing the hatches on compartments to stop flooding?

I completely agree.

[Ragnarokkr]

Throwing my two cents in here, damage modeling on the sub could be a drastic game changer with only tediously good prospects

[Onkel Neal]

Originally Posted by Giesemaschine

As a salty subsim skipper, I’m loving this darn game!

I would love to see repairs in this game though.

Maybe like the flashlight, we could have a hammer item to equip. When under depth charge attack and a pipe bursts, the crew has to rush and beat away at the damaged part until it’s “repaired” until the compartment is slowly flooded, or maybe a crew member has to run and grab a piece of wood to plug the hole.


Are these features planned? Also, will ee be able to see compartments slowly filling with water? Maybe closing the hatches on compartments to stop flooding?

We discussed repairs and there was the thought that it was really not interesting, or that like other games, it would amount to "clicking a wrench". But, it was also bounced around as a way to keep a crew member busy and distracted, thus adding stress to the crew because that crew member would not be available for routine activities, like navigating or handling the dive/helm station. The stress would be amplified when the boat was under attack and one or two crew members had to be pulled away from their stations to effect repairs needed to keep the bilge level under control and not sinking the boat.

I like your idea and think maybe it could fit into the game later when the critical elements are finished. Maybe the repair could be a minigame style thing, like a 2D puzzle...something that would require skill and critical thinking... such as arranging wood wedges, gaskets, and take to fit a leak, or tightening a flange in the optimum order....reseting circuit breakers in a certain order... It wouldn't be the top fun thing in anybody's list but also not boring dull.

[Elphaba]

Originally Posted by Onkel Neal

We discussed repairs and there was the thought that it was really not interesting, or that like other games, it would amount to "clicking a wrench". But, it was also bounced around as a way to keep a crew member busy and distracted, thus adding stress to the crew because that crew member would not be available for routine activities, like navigating or handling the dive/helm station. The stress would be amplified when the boat was under attack and one or two crew members had to be pulled away from their stations to effect repairs needed to keep the bilge level under control and not sinking the boat.

I like your idea and think maybe it could fit into the game later when the critical elements are finished. Maybe the repair could be a minigame style thing, like a 2D puzzle...something that would require skill and critical thinking... such as arranging wood wedges, gaskets, and take to fit a leak, or tightening a flange in the optimum order....reseting circuit breakers in a certain order... It wouldn't be the top fun thing in anybody's list but also not boring dull.

Have you or the dev's played 'Sea of Thieves'?

The 'repair' mechanic in that is you have to collect / find wooden boards, of which you can only hold 5 at a time, and then when your ship takes damage (usually canon fire) these holes in the boat start leaking, so as well as trying to steer, trying to set and trim sail trying to fight off boarders and load and fire canons, you have to run around and patch these holes with your boards (which is a hold button for a short duration event) and then grab a bucket and scoop up water and run onto the deck and throw the water overboard.

All whilst probably taking more damage.

It's frantic, hectic, and stressful. Sure the action of grabbing a board and holding a button for 10 seconds over the patch isn't challenging, but it's that you need to do it to not sink, and by doing it you're not steering / sailing / fighting / defending.

Now, in a Uboat situation, as I've already asked - there are no death scenes, and no massive leaking damage we have to worry about - which is a shame.

But there's no reason why we can't go to a storage area, grab a bulb and replace.

Or grab a wrench and try and put on a pipe seal whilst fighting against the water flow. i.e. moving mouse in clockwise circles to tighten, but the water flow keeps pushing you back, so you have to go faster until it's stemming the flow and then when fully tight the pipe stops leaking.

These pipes or seals could be all over the conning tower, command room and radio room.

Also, yes, re-wiring of the radio equipment using a 'mini-game' of replacing broken transistors or wires from a limited store and reconnecting them. It's not about the actual action of dragging and clicking, but the time it takes when you desperately need to hear what's going on, or maybe after lots of damage having to take wires / transistors from one piece of equipment - thus rendering it inoperative - to repair another more vital one.

This leads to losing radio or DF to save hydro and the resulting problems that can cause.

Maybe further gameplay is having to switch back to receive orders from BdU or other subs at scheduled times and then switching back components to make the hydro work again.

I think this comes back to feeling stress and danger. At the moment, there isn't a lot. With the instant cut to the game over screen, without the water flooding in, and the ability to try (and probably fail) to stem the flow, and the resulting drowning / loss of ship being seen and felt then there isn't much to add to the stress and immersion that in other parts of the game it excels at.

[Giesemaschine]

Elphaba hit the nail on the head in regard to context - context is everything and the crew repairs would work best during depth charge attacks while the control room is slowly filling with water.


Not only are players rushing to gain control of the boat, but they're under a time limit to stop the boat from sinking further.


Personally for me, the best part in Das Boot is after the destroyer attacks them on the surface in Gibraltar. All hope is lost, damage is tremendous, the crew is fatigued and exhausted, the boot is sinking....but they managed to fix up the crippled boat just barely enough to get it to raise off the seafloor.



Imagine how cool it would be? The central room is almost flooded....players are swimming around and having to use breathing aparatus to dive under the water to fix whatever repair/leak/etc.


Then, using buckets they have to work as a team to dump the water into the bilges and blow the excess weight out that way just like in the movie. Or maybe (even more compartments are planned to be modeled), they'd have to close the hatches to stop water from rushing in...potentially trapping a fellow teammate inside!


Talk about tense!

[Sauerkraut]

The interior modeling is so detailed, it would be cool to bring more of it into play with this proposed repair system. Ruptured pipes & components shooting sparks would be fun, it would expand on what can seem like instant death from DC's now without much interval beyond broken lightbulbs & roll credits.

[Onkel Neal]

Agreed! It's on the future feature list for sure.

[Pütrologe]

I think it would be very amazing. It could increase the Multicrew experience/immersion onto a real high level.