Single player upgrade

[Chromatix]

I voted "Other" since my position on this is very nuanced. Bear in mind that I'm coming at this from a *primarily* single-player perspective, so I'm looking for the greatest immersion and utility in that mode and thinking less of PvP.

I'm in favour of a concept where each major function of the boat is handled by a crew, and players can take over a position from the AI crew. This implies that the AI crew should have realistically human performance in their handling of each position, so that a human player can perform better if skilled, and worse if unskilled.

A single player would necessarily take the commanding role (except perhaps for focused tutorial missions), and will be directly in charge of an attack. He should therefore have a very quick and easy way to give straightforward commands for the rest of the crew (AI or otherwise) to carry out, and for that purpose a set of UI icons similar to Silent Hunter's would make a lot of sense. These would set explicit goals for the crew to work towards, either by an explicit, realistic telegraph instrument (as for engine commands) or a virtual "bug" superimposed on the real one, backed up by a voice repeater.

Voice commands basically work for commanding players, but even this gets a bit cacophonic (without established military phraseology and discipline) and would probably prove unreliable for commanding AI crew.

When not in the attacking phase, a single player will often wish to attend to different stations himself, eg. listening to a sonar contact to verify or supplement the sonarman's analysis, or going over the charts with the navigator. Also, a multi-crewed boat may be shorthanded, requiring players to change stations regularly for maximum operational efficiency.

For this purpose, being able to walk around the sub step by step is sufficient, but potentially tedious. At the same time, adding the ability to teleport between stations instantly is a little too unrealistic. Instead, buttons which pathfind the player directly to an operating position at a normal pace for the situation (cruising, action, or silent) would probably work well, without causing a major imbalance.

But the quick command icons are the essential feature. I don't see any other way to reliably command an AI crew.

[Gwenydd]

I would make all control inputs for all stations so they are mapped to either keyboard, directx, or analog inputs so they can be accessed from anywhere on the boat. This would allow for single player controls as well as mapping of physical controls used in physical simulator environments (as in the working replica type vii control room I'd like to build). As someone who has built and maintained professional flight simulator hardware/software environments for years and who wants to build a realistic simulated u-boat environment this would make my life significantly easier while at the same time provide for single player control of the boat. For sim environment builders it's essential to have ALL sim functions mappable to any input desired.

I would not use icons on screen for this at all, since it would be seamless with all inputs mapped.

Gwen

(the crazy flight sim/real aircraft/sub sim builder woman) =P

[nsomnia]

Previous post revoked by Nsomnia.



I agree crew AI to take over stations that can be trained to a higher level and a full GUI for the CO or even all relevant stations in multiplayer and a full GUI with hotkeys is best for single player.

[JL]

Like many others I am very interested in Wolfpack but do not have time (or a consistent enough schedule) to play multiplayer. So once (if) a specific approach to SP is agreed and committed to I will immediately purchase Wolfpack (assuming the approach is workable and fun).

I personally think the ability to control the sub at stations and through a floating UI and key press capability is the way to go. Finally crew should start at an average to slightly below average level and go up from there. Assuming SP will be available at some point please send out another email at that time to advise those like me who will then want to make a purchase. Thanks!