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Old 04-02-20, 07:17 PM   #1
Cosloy
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Default Wolfpack Wishlist

I've started browsing the U-boat KTBs at http://www.uboatarchive.net/KTBList.htm and found them to be fascinating reading. I kept imagining what it'd be like to experience some of the described events in Wolfpack and it inspired me to write up a wishlist. I'm sure some of these are already planned, and some have been mentioned by others, but I'll mention them anyway. Please know that I am in no way demanding anything. I love Wolfpack and I'm looking forward to its future. I just thought it'd be fun to throw out some ideas.

The KTBs mention a lot of environmental factors that would have had effects on sub handling and/or the visibility of the submarine, enemy ships, and even torpedoes and would have affected the decision of how/when to attack. Having these simulated in Wolfpack would be amazing.

Earth curvature/real horizon.
Accurate moon/sun position.
Sea state.
Weather (wind, mist and fog banks, rain, wind, hail, storms, etc).
Marine phosphorescence (never occurred to me, but this was mentioned quite a bit in KTBs)
Northern lights.
Currents (obviously important for the Scapa Flow mission).
Sea smoke and ice flows in cold climates.

I'm aware that some of these are more interesting for Wolfpack than others. Few players will want to sit in a submerged sub for hours waiting for a storm to pass, for example.


Some other things mentioned in the KTBs that I thought would be cool to encounter in Wolfpack are:

Aircraft - crash diving due to planes is mentioned a LOT.

Zigzagging - This is pretty obvious. One KTB mentions flares used to signal changes in course/speed which made the uboat captain think they'd been spotted.

Varied ship damage/sinking behavior - many of the attack descriptions detail the effects of torpedo hits, which allowed the captain to assess the amount of damage done and influenced the decision to fire additional shots and/or use deck gun.

More realistic periscope simulation - Many KTBs describe difficulty or impossibility of seeing targets through either periscope at night, or not being able to use periscopes while submerged at speed due to vibration and risk of being spotted due to the wake produced by the scope.

Anti-sub ships operating away from convoys - Escorts or other anti-sub ships would sometimes operate away from the convoy and catch submarines from behind as they focused their attention on the convoy. This would make it really important to maintain a good watch.

Varied escort behavior - For example, escorts would sometimes stop and sit quietly, tricking the sub into thinking they've left and surfacing.

Bow waves and wakes - to help judge speed on enemy ships and to aid maintaining contact.

Varied ship colors/paint schemes - Just to add variety. Although having fake/painted bow waves to confuse us would be cool.

Dimmed ships - Ships should normally be lights out at night, but maybe there is a chance some crewman is negligent and leaves a light visible through a porthole.

Neutral ships - Maybe have standing orders regarding what can/cannot be attacked, depending on date/location. Perhaps stopping a neutral ship to check their papers can be a random event during missions.

Other enemy warships - Some chance to encounter a carrier, battleship, etc.

Improved torpedo simulation, including different types and options, including magnetic vs. contact detonator pistols. Also including the possibility of different types of failure (circle runner, tube runner, depth keeping failure, etc.). Variable loading times.

Simulated radio traffic - SOS calls from stricken vessels, requests from BdU for reports, requests to send bearing signals for other uboats or German aircraft to attack convoy.

Damage to uboat systems and equipment - both due to attack damage and misuse, such as hitting the bottom during a crash dive and damaging the hydrophone or dive plane.

Details around sinking enemy ships - lifeboats, debris and oil in water, etc.) Maybe other ships come to aid stricken ships and help survivors.


Anyway, that's my list. I don't know what's planned for Wolfpack or what's possible, but I'd love to hear if anyone agrees or disagrees with any of these ideas.

Good hunting!
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Old 04-03-20, 01:58 PM   #2
stellaferox
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SHO

Although nobody is answering: all true and WANTED!
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Old 04-03-20, 03:03 PM   #3
Fidd
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A good list, however, for my pennyworth, playable escorts would have to be top of the list, so that when you're detected allied players can either man the ship in asdic contact, or, can continue to man the ship they spawned into. By blurring the difference between AI and human controlled escorts, so that U-boat captains can no longer rely on knowing their behaviour, visual safe distances etc, all escorts would have to be treated as if manned, and all DC attacks would in all likelihood last much longer.

I think to strike the right gameplay balance between time invested in game, and opportunity to detect and/or attack a U-boat, tying a player to a single escort ship is not going to be an attractive system. I would suggest that players could join an escort in asdic contact, or any escort at will, provided more than say circa 8-15 minutes has elapsed since they last changed ship. This final wrinkle is arguably needed to prevent players jumping between ships to prosecute attacks on the same U-boat at a rate faster than the reload speed of the escort they started with....

Sea-mines might be fun in the North Sea/English Channel - cables scraping along the hull, reversing the U-boat to allow them to lose the cable and avoid dragging the mine onto the hull...
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Old 04-03-20, 04:40 PM   #4
Cosloy
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The playable escorts project will hopefully be a great addition, even for those that like to play solo. I understand it's a project by a separate developer so it gets blurry when making suggestions.



I like your idea of being able to hop between escorts as a player, as long as the player has control over which ship they're commanding. Receiving a radio report of a contact and speeding over to help sounds exciting as well. I agree the uboat players should not know whether an escort is AI or human. Keeping things unpredictable makes everything more immersive.
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Old 04-03-20, 05:15 PM   #5
PL_Andrev
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Cosloy View Post
The playable escorts project will hopefully be a great addition, even for those that like to play solo. I understand it's a project by a separate developer so it gets blurry when making suggestions.
Hope is not dead. Last post of his page is 13 March...

I can repeat all points what I suggested when game was in early progress:

1. Scenario editor (devs informed to add this point to their "to do" list),

2. Friendly ship moddable (more diverse textures, current are... ugly, if are any)

3. Playable escort ships.
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Old 04-05-20, 08:35 AM   #6
Fidd
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Cosloy View Post
The playable escorts project will hopefully be a great addition, even for those that like to play solo. I understand it's a project by a separate developer so it gets blurry when making suggestions.

I like your idea of being able to hop between escorts as a player, as long as the player has control over which ship they're commanding. Receiving a radio report of a contact and speeding over to help sounds exciting as well. I agree the uboat players should not know whether an escort is AI or human. Keeping things unpredictable makes everything more immersive.
Cheers, I think the escort-players being able to move between ships will really help. Otherwise you could spend a full game doing nothing at all but standard sweeps if you happen to be the wrong side of the convoy..

The other idea I've been playing with is a role as "convoy commander" for a player. He'd be able to change the convoy course and/or speed, up to so many degrees and so many knots as a pre-set manoeuvre for all ships, if one is hit, or to manually order it. In the event a hit has caused the ships to alter course, then the manual slot would be lost for that period.

Additionally the convoy commander could order a proportion of the escort ships to particular areas relative to the convoy to increase the chance of an asdic contact - provided his intuition is correct! At all times, the desired area of each escort, be it AI or Human controlled would be shewn on the map, and AI escorts if out of position, would always move back to that position, using an algorithm to route other than through it. This would add a tactical dimension to the game. For the convoy commander, every ship he detaches to attack a detected u-boat will open up gaps in, or contract the screen, so it'll be a fine judgement.

I would also suggest that the results of every game played be recorded in terms of torpedoes fired, from how many boats, the maximum u-boats in play, the number of crew, the tonnage sunk and period of daylight etc etc. These figures could be used to define a win/lose point, so that if the escorts prevent a particular tonnage being sunk in a particular period, with so many crew (etc) then the escorts win that game, if the tonnage is sunk, then the U-boat crews win... Individual U-boat players who have "mastered" the game, could choose to apply a handicap, requiring a greater tonnage than that calculated as the win/lose point, in order to keep the game a challenge.
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