Closed beta starting soon!

[Artur Salwarowski]

Dear Subsim community,


The time to release the early access version of Destroyer draws near. As you know very well, we are making this game for genuine fans of (anti-)submarine warfare, and it is not an overstatement to say that we value and trust your opinion more than our own. Therefore, we would like to ask those of you who would like to participate in a closed beta to send an email to destroyer@ironwolfstudio.com. Those of you who do so will receive access to the beta and will be asked to fill in a feedback form so that we know how to best adjust the game to your preferences.

We will be starting the beta shortly, as soon as we manage to implement a few essential 'quality of life' improvements (such as the ability to save your games). If all goes well, we will be able to start the beta next week.

If you have any questions, suggestions, or anything else that you would like to let us know about, then please do so here. Once the beta starts, we will be very happy to receive feedback through the online form that you will receive access to together with the beta.

[Aktungbby]

[Furia]

I am clearly interested. E-mail sent!

[dsawan]

Interested too. email sent

[Artur Salwarowski]

Hello everyone,

I just wanted to let you know that we have received your emails and that we will be contacting you very soon about the beta. We were supposed to start last week, but there has been so much going on that we had to move it to this week instead.

We are currently finishing most of we wanted to get ready for you for the beta, and we are currently looking at Wednesday the 8th of September as the starting date.

We hope that you will enjoy the beta in spite of the delay and we are very much looking forward to your feedback once it goes hot.

Thank you very much for the response and we will definitely keep you posted regarding any and all developments.

[Artur Salwarowski]

Hi,

I just wanted to check whether everything is working fine for you and if you have any first impressions.

It would be best if we could get at least some early balancing feedback before the 12th of September, because after that the EA version will be released to influencers and the press.

Even more importantly, we would really appreciate the above feedback before the 19th of September, which would leave us a week to digest your feedback and introduce the necessary changes before the EA release happening on September the 28th.

Thank you very much once again for your participation.

[Halcyon]

Hi Artur,

I had enough time this morning to run through the new tutorial and start a single small battle.
I'll have more time to test in-depth later, but here are my initial impressions and findings:


- In the "Single Battle" screen, the word "Convoy" is duplicated (i.e. for Small Battle, Convoy = 9 ships and also Convoy = 2 ships). I'm assuming the 2nd instance of "Convoy" is really supposed to be "U-boat"

- The tutorial got stuck for me on the "snap the spotlight to the periscope feather" part. By the time I had read all the tutorial text and pressed the spotlight button, the u-boat was behind me but shortly after it appeared on the opposite side of the destroyer (I guess it was doing circles?). After restarting the tutorial and quickly going through all the confirmation text boxes, it worked normally. If possible, it might be beneficial to pause the sim between instructions to give the player time to read the boxes and interact with what they're being asked to push or type in

- Part of the tutorial says you can click on a "?" button next to the three auto-crew options in the settings, but I couldn't see anything next to those check boxes

- The number keys appear to change stations, but they lose that functionality if you interact with a part of the UI directly, like grabbing the ship wheel with your mouse to change the rudder. Only by pressing W,A,S, or D to bring up that mini-UI window in the lower left was I able to continue using the number keys to cycle through stations

- Having to hit the "Enter" key after using the W,A,S, or D keys to change rudder/speed isn't really friendly to the hand or wrist. Generally you shouldn't make the user have to move their hand much if you want them to use the number keys to change stations and W,A,S,D to manipulate course and speed. I'm assuming we'll get to change the keybinds later?

- Having the time, course, and speed info in the lower left across multiple stations is great, but it's missing Gun Director, Lookouts, and External View stations

- There's no way to turn off motion blur when looking around the stations. This caused my game to lag a bit if you move the camera around too quickly

- The sound of the printer in the sonar/TRR screens is a little loud. Being able to turn down that specific sound effect would be good

- The top of the screen is cut off in an ultra-wide resolution (my native resolution is 2560 x 1080), which obscures parts of important tools like the compass in the upper left of the bridge station. Switching to a 1920 x 1080 resolution fixes that, but leaves black bars on the left and right of the screen

- Switching from true/relative bearings on the sonar station doesn't make either of the compass discs rotate. They're both stuck with 000 being at the top regardless. If I remember right in the older demo, one of them would rotate to show true north.

- The U-boat still seems to be able to dive/surface too quickly. I was chasing a submerged U-boat for a while until he surfaced. I was only able to fire my guns 2 times before he was already diving again


I'll add more feedback as I get to play more.

[Furia]

Hi Artur,
I have installed it yesterday and had time to run it 3 times so far.

I plan to play more hours this weekend and then I will send you a detailled report as requested

[Onkel Neal]

Planned Release Date: September 28, 2022 Sign up here for Early Access

Been playing the beta build... yes. Yes. I've put in 2000 hours as a U-boat commander trying to outsmart the escorts, now it's the other way around.

Will be releasing a preview video sometime next week, when the dev team gives me the greenlight.

Do you remember Destroyer Command? Did you enjoy Greyhound? Have you watched The Enemy Below? I think you're gonna love this one.

[Skybird]

Pah, its just an ugrade...

[Onkel Neal]

"The board game where you match wits with a computer".

Haha, how did I miss that one?

[Sunnydas1]

September 28, 2022. Destroyer: the U-Boat Hunter is an interactive war thriller which seamlessly blends realistic WW2 anti-submarine warfare simulation with immersive tactical gameplay. Take command of a Fletcher-class destroyer and lead your escort group against German U-boats in the Battle of the Atlantic!












krnt.run
indigocard.ltd

[Aktungbby]

Sunnydas¹!

[Halcyon]

More feedback:

- I hit a u-boat with depth charges, and my lookout reported an oil slick, but the sub was still alive and operational. I'm no expert, but if the sub is leaking oil that means it has a hole in it. I don't see how it can remain at 100% combat effectiveness if there's oil floating on the surface

- was the submerged speed changed for u-boats? They still seem like they're going too fast and are able to dodge a depth charge drop almost every single time. It doesn't matter if I go at them head on or if I plan my approach and try to come at them from their stern. They will make a hard turn and I can never get the charges to land exactly on him (except for one time, which I already explained above...oil slick but no kill)

- to add on to the last point, my escorts also have the same trouble sinking a u-boat. I've heard them make depth charge run after run with the same results I usually have, which is not hitting the target or getting a report of oil and debris but the target isn't sunk. Are the u-boats invincible in this closed-beta build?

- the sonar indicator will go in the opposite direction of what you've set the circular arrow button on the right to be. I find I have to click that button twice to get the indicator to match the direction of what the button shows if you leave the sonar screen and come back, especially after contact has been lost (usually during a depth charge drop)

- I've seen the periscope briefly using the lookout station, but then it suddenly disappears even though the automated lookout is still calling out they can see a periscope feather. I point right at the bearing with binocs but still can't see it, even after shooting star shells. It seems to be a graphical glitch

- If you load starshells, sometimes you can't unload them or switch back to normal shells after firing a starshell burst

- Sometimes you can't unclick the "radar track" button for the gun if you previously clicked it but the sub submerged and you lost the track. This results in the player unable to manually rotate the gun turret

- When tracking a sub and you lose contact, if there is another sub nearby that an escort is tracking and giving you bearings for, that new sub will automatically switch to be the new target even though you're still maneuvering and trying to find the original target. This can result in the sonar snapping to the new target and making it harder to find where the cursor originally was to attempt to switch back to the old target to track it using the sonar

In all, combined with my first feedback report, I don't think this closed-beta build is ready for an early access release, especially if the u-boats are somehow set to be invulnerable.

[Onkel Neal]

That's good feedback

Originally Posted by Halcyon

More feedback:

- I hit a u-boat with depth charges, and my lookout reported an oil slick, but the sub was still alive and operational. I'm no expert, but if the sub is leaking oil that means it has a hole in it. I don't see how it can remain at 100% combat effectiveness if there's oil floating on the surface
[ ]

Historically, it was not unusual for a submarine to have a fuel leak, especially u-boats, as they used their ballast tanks as fuel tanks at times. The leak could be caused by damage, shipyard sabotage, or simply wear and tear. Only takes a small leak to leave a trail marking the boat's position.

- was the submerged speed changed for u-boats? They still seem like they're going too fast and are able to dodge a depth charge drop almost every single time. It doesn't matter if I go at them head on or if I plan my approach and try to come at them from their stern. They will make a hard turn and I can never get the charges to land exactly on him (except for one time, which I already explained above...oil slick but no kill)

They are tricky, and as a player, we have to trust the devs that their U-boat AI is legit. U-boats had severe limitations once submerged. But if the game limits the u-boats too much, it's not a challenge for the player. I know with Wolfpack, it's crucial to get this right.

- If you load starshells, sometimes you can't unload them or switch back to normal shells after firing a starshell burst

- Sometimes you can't unclick the "radar track" button for the gun if you previously clicked it but the sub submerged and you lost the track. This results in the player unable to manually rotate the gun turret

Same here. Looks like an area they will need to address. I also have hell when I am in Tactical and I go to change course or speed, half the time I end up reassigning Antler and Cat! The devs probably know this, but you are right to point it out.

- When tracking a sub and you lose contact, if there is another sub nearby that an escort is tracking and giving you bearings for, that new sub will automatically switch to be the new target even though you're still maneuvering and trying to find the original target. This can result in the sonar snapping to the new target and making it harder to find where the cursor originally was to attempt to switch back to the old target to track it using the sonar

Yes, it does get confusing, I'm thinking it would be great to have the DRT note the contact if it changes.

Also, would love to have the DRT retain the last one or two markings when switching from 1000 to 100.

In all, combined with my first feedback report, I don't think this closed-beta build is ready for an early access release, especially if the u-boats are somehow set to be invulnerable.

I think the version they release as EA will be improved over this closed beta version.
Also, the u-boats in the game always give away their position by being on the surface at the beginning of the game. Have you played a mission yet where they are quietly submerged and they torpedo a ship before you know they are there? Sounds like that should happen at the Hard difficulty setting... you get no indication other than possible hydrophone contact or scope visual detection -- IF you happen to be in the right place.

Thanks for the input, glad our notes compare.