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

[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

[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

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 ). 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)


Flooding in the Fore Torpedo Room!


Interested to hear what you think!

[BubbaJake]

My gosh! That project looks amazing! 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.

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

[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]

Originally Posted by 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!

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!