Wolfpack: Project Escorts

[KojiKamori]

Hello, I am Koji Kamori as many would call me over via Steam and Discord and I am working on what is more or less the expansion of Wolfpack to include playable escort ships. First of all, let's clear a few elephants in the room; I am not a developer associated with Usurpator AB, I am an independent developer working exclusively on this project. Second, No Koji isn't my real name nor do I live in Japan however is a name I had since Middle School so it sorta stuck.

This project I started back in around June of 2019 and been working on modeling the Flower Corvette, starting with just an idea, I shared a few teasers over on the official discord channel for Wolfpack and it quickly gained traction. I have the full blessing of the developers to pursue this project and have been in continual contract with them, they even gave me my own channel in the official discord just to better communicate and is where I share heavily my progress of the project.

My aims is to bring all the three current escort ships in the game into being playable vessels that the player can control and hunt u-boats, if you are one to think this is quite simple, you are gravely mistaken, and if you think this is quite ambitious and insane, then you and I will get along quite well indeed. Here, have a cup of tea.

I started with the Flower Class as a dip of the toe in the pond to see how it would go, I thought myself that it would be simple enough as the Corvette and the U-boat are quite similar to another, well matched. One main deck gun, replace the torpedoes with depth charges, roughly the same size in length, so on and so forth. I started to delve into who else has made models of the ship and there is where I fell down the rabbit hole in how much references and books I found with plans and lay outs of the entire ship, I had it really made or so I though.







When I fell down that rabbit hole I went even further and found the last remaining Corvette to be the Sackville where I was able to obtain over 200 pictures of the ship inside and out due to how much of a tourist trap it is. From there, it was easy enough to make a working model of the ship and in June, I posted the first picture of many which was a view looking from the deck gun and the crowd went wild. I continued to then work backwards and work on the wheelhouse, finishing the hull, the superstructure and I kept going. Today, the model is done in terms of the ship, other components I am still working on but I am at the Unwrapping Stage which to say, is the stage before everything receives a texture.

So, you may be wondering as a few others, "Why didn't I just start with programming first and then the model?" "Can you even program?" First, I am a video game developer by profession, 3d modeler by profession as well. I been working on a mobile game for the last 2+ years and had allot of hiccups there, when you aren't the best 2d artist and circumstances leaves you in a pickle (which I won't go into) you sorta get sick of programming and what I really am desiring is a 3d game and to stretch my 3d skills once more. The entire game is a simulation and immersive, and all the interface is highly digetic except for a few indicators telling you that "This is the telegraph" What better way to start testing than with an interface already built? No mockups or wireframes, your interface is an entire 3d model based on reality. (You see, I am really, really sick and tired of working in 2d)



Along the way I further dug into finding more about the reality of the ship and the history, I wasn't any longer making just a quick release, I wanted the same level of attention to detail as the original devs of the game and I started to reach out to others, some were lack luster and others have proven to be quite the reparable source of information. Because research is never cheap nor easy, to help pay for my research expenses, I started a Patron for any one that wishes to help further my research or perhaps just to buy me a cup of coffee, I do like coffee.

Research such as books, plans, manuals, videos and so forth from many archives to have copied are not free neither are some of these books with plans, prints and pictures in them which all aid in making accurate representations of the ship. But what am I researching and how much are you actually putting into the game? Researching everything that I can, first of all, plans of the ship, I have the Flower, I am still looking for the Tribal and the Black Swan Sloop. Statistics and Technical information is also helpful as it will give me characteristics of the ship, like how fast they move, their maneuverability and their armament.




So far my research has now led me to learning about IFF systems, Radar, and ASDIC (Sonar for you Americans) All of this and more I do plan to incorporate into each of the ships and so far, I have had a major break in obtaining such information through good people that warmed up to my project.

So, where does this all lead when the Flower is finished? Well I have all the programming to do, then of course to model the new 5 crew members (Captain, Navigator, Coxswain, Radio Officer, Asdic Officer) allot of testing, and then I have two other ships to follow. This project can go on for quite some time however I work fast and given that I finished the flower in just a handful of months I hope that the next part of it all will continue to run smoothly.






I am sure there are a hundred questions that everyone has and I do have an FAQ (Though a few things needs amending) I am also more reachable on Discord than anywhere else, I work constantly on this project and between everything else, is one reason I have not come to Subsim so for major news, I will continue to update here so no one falls out of the loop.



More Pictures Here:

https://imgur.com/a/Sbe6frZ