Wolfpack: A guide to improve immersion

By Nesegreven

This is a guide for all the individuals that do not want BOTS and complain about not enough realism.

Improve your playing environment

This is a guide for all the individuals (hardcore ultra-realism simulation fans) that complain about not enough realism, or that they want the devs to add realism/simulation elements to the game that would serve no gameplay purpose other than deter players from playing the game. If you can check any of those points, or want to make your life harder for any reason, please read on.

Make your room smell more like a true German submarine

Close all windows when running with the hatch closed to make the air dense and stale.
Buy a jerrycan of diesel and place it on your desk with the lid open, diesel fumes are the pinnacle of a German U-boat environment.
Buy a can of engine oil and place the can on your desk with the cap open, this combined with the diesel will make the air thick and tasting of hydrocarbons.
Save some rotten fruit to simulate having been weeks at sea without resupply, moldy bread also works.
Do not wash your clothes and keep used clothes in a pile near your desk, to simulate the sweaty smell of 40 sailors.
Toilets could not be used while submerged, so if submerged you should use a bucket. If you surface you must roll a dice, an odd number means that the bucket was tipped over by the rough movement of the ship. You must then kick the bucket over.
Add seawater to a spray bottle and periodically spray it around your room. If you don’t have a spray bottle use a glass/beaker/mug/container instead and sprinkle it around with your hand. When standing on the bridge make sure to douse face and clothes with the seawater to simulate rough seas. If you don’t live near the ocean/sea I have enclose a recipe for making it at home.

Play this video with speakers and a subwoofer to if you are not satisfied with engine noise

Making seawater
To replicate seawater at home, weigh 35 grams of salt and add it to a beaker. Add tap water until the total mass of the solution inside the beaker is 1,000 grams, stirring until the salt is completely dissolved (remember to take the weight of the beaker itself into account). Rock salt, sea salt, kosher salt and table salt can all be used to make seawater at home. To make hypersaline water water, which is saltier than seawater, increase the amount of salt to 50 gram

Simulate damage to the U-boat when under attack

A number of actions can be taken to simulate a U-boat under attack

If you are hit by depth charges or shells from a deck gun:

Have all your pans, pots, cooking trays and metal cutlery stacked in a large unstable pile/tower, tie a string to the item at the bottom of the pile. When you get hit you pull the string with full force to make the tower fall over, this will create a lot of noise and clutter simulating a direct hit.
Smash the light bulbs of any lamps in your room, the lack of light and the crunching of broken glass will replicate damage sustained by the U-boat.
Any loose items (especially item like plates, glasses, cups, cutlery) must be thrown on the ground, items stored on shelves must be cleared from the shelves with a swift hand movement sending the items flying around.
Punch your screen, to reduce your vision of what is happening. If the screen breaks it means your U-boat has been incapacitated.
Splash seawater all around on the floor to simulate a leak.

Simulate a Crash Dive

To simulate crash dives, invite a couple friends over (preferably only friends that haven’t shaved or bathed for a long time, this to simulate the prolonged time at sea). If you lack of friends, pay a homeless person (preferably one who has not showered in weeks).

Under normal circumstances, just have them walk around your room and let them clean up your sh!t or so, put the friend that is the least liked in the group on latrine duty (this will come in handy with the dice/bucket part of the game)

Originally posted by Section 1 of the guide:

Toilets could not be used while submerged, so if submerged you should use a bucket. If you surface you must roll a dice, an odd number means that the bucket was tipped over by the rough movement of the ship. You must then kick the bucket over.

Whenever you give the order to crash dive, have your friends run to one end of the room, this to simulate a “trim party” To increase the immersion level, two of your friends should tilt your desk violently as well.

If you don’t have enough friends to tilt your desk to the appropriate angle then alternatively you can opt to replace your desk with a more unstable version which easily can be handled by only 1 friend (this version is more suitable for captains that are getting depth charged a majority of the time).