UBOAT, WW2 subsim 4/30/19 on Steam

[FarAway Sooner]

I saw a big update go by, I should check back in and see how the game is coming.

One major update in the major update that I'll appreciate, is a reduced accuracy for anti-sub bombs and strafing, especially at night. The last campaign I ran failed because having snuck out of Belfast harbor and around the northern side of Ireland, I should have been fairly home free in the middle of the night running on the surface -- but as I was diving after being spotted by a plane (okay) the thing totally wiped me in damage. In the middle of the night. While I'm diving. Even if there had been a cloudless bright moon, which I don't recall the weather on, that's kind of hard to accept.

By Spring 1943 the allies have pretty good radar and even air-dropped homing torpedoes...earlier than that you should be pretty safe from air at night.

In addition to technical innovations, by 1943 there was also a lot of work done on attack methodologies.  Such simple doctrine changes as "Should we try to space airplane-dropped depth charges 20 feet apart or 40 feet apart when attacking a submerging boat?" made a real difference.  Black May, by Michael Gannon, goes into a lot of detail on these sorts of things.

Of course, the real value proposition for plane-based radars in ASW work was 3-fold. 

1) It allowed planes to attack and sink U-boats, especially from low cloud cover where the U-boats couldn't know where the planes were but the planes knew where the U-boats were. 

2) While sinkings by plane were fairly uncommon, they made a huge difference by driving boats underwater.  This made for a much slower transit into the hunting zones (meaning less time on station per sortie), but it also made it much harder for U-boats attacking a convoy to sprint ahead of the convoy and submerge in time to mount an attack. 

3) Frequent sightings by planes with radar could be passed along quickly to convoy escorts, who were able to conduct much more long-lasting and tenacious attacks on U-boats.

It was the combo of these things (along with British intelligence successes) that spelled the death of the wolfpack tactic.  After that, the U-boats simply struggled to inflict more than minor losses the rest of the war.

If it makes you feel any better, Jason, you're sharing your feelings with dozens (if not hundreds) of German U-boat captains...

[MengJiao]

In addition to technical innovations, by 1943 there was also a lot of work done on attack methodologies.  Such simple doctrine changes as "Should we try to space airplane-dropped depth charges 20 feet apart or 40 feet apart when attacking a submerging boat?" made a real difference.  Black May, by Michael Gannon, goes into a lot of detail on these sorts of things.

   Like may "Legends" (to sort of quote the game's very own melodrama), you have to wonder how the whole imagery of the Uboat got put together.  Clay Blair in his second volume of his work on Uboats ( the Hunted) dissects one part of the legendary history by showing that the idea that the Uboats came close to some kind of victory in March 1943 isn't particularly true and remarks that after the summer of '42, Uboats steadily became so outclassed technologically that by the late Spring of 1943 their use was close to suicidal.  It's true that there were some big convoy actions in March 1943 but their impact is exaggerated by sinkings away from the main Atlantic convoy areas.

[Windigo]

Some of their own.... oops.

[W8taminute]

Compare this to the situation in the Pacific.  Did the USA 'U-boat' war waged on Japan meet the same technological defense the allies enjoyed in the Atlantic?

[MengJiao]

Compare this to the situation in the Pacific.  Did the USA 'U-boat' war waged on Japan meet the same technological defense the allies enjoyed in the Atlantic?

  US Subs vs Japan was a very different war -- though with the odd simularity that both the US and Germany started their submarine wars with unreliable torpedoes.  Luckily for the Germans, they captured a RN sub (the Seal) early in the war (though too late for fixing torpedoes in the naval battles in Norway in 1940 where uboat torpedoes did very badly)and copied the magnetic proximity fuses from that.  The US wasn't so lucky with its early war torpedoes.

[Jarhead0331]

Mega update released today...

Some of the top features introduced by this update include:

- Full 1939 - 1945 campaign
- Ukrainian localisation (created by vovanvoks)
- Historical ports
- Minelaying
- Climate zones and seasons
- New destroyers
- Hedgehog launchers
- Deck gun's optics
- Many new convoys
- Tides
- Submarine pens
- Fishing boats
- CHANT coasters
- Manual control over alarm
- Crew now uses toilets
- Commanding activities for the officers
- Steam Deck compatibility
- Reward overhaul for the campaign missions
- New campaign objectives
- New types of missions
- ...and much more!

Biggest feature for me is the crew use of toilets.

[SirAndrewD]

Time to start a new campaign.

[JasonPratt]

I thought I recalled the crew using toilets already...? Upgraded toilets were even an important scientific technology, allowing for better silent running when in danger -- I mean in the game last time I played, a few years ago!

But on the other hand, I never saw the crew using the toilet that I recall, so I suppose they mean 'now you can see crewmen going to the toilet and leaving again'. I wonder if you can also catch them slacking off in there, and give them a lecture or worse (as was previously possible elsewhere in the sub).

[SirAndrewD]

After a few beers whiskeys I thought I saw the crew using the toilet as well.

[Dammit Carl!]

Compare this to the situation in the Pacific.  Did the USA 'U-boat' war waged on Japan meet the same technological defense the allies enjoyed in the Atlantic?

*Don't think so as Japan seemed to be lacking the technical capacity to push things as far and as fast as the Allies could once the resource crunch began happening in conjunction to the inter-service rivalry between the Army and Navy.  Having said that, we'd best thank our lucky stars that Japan didn't grab onto the unrestricted submarine warfare idea as they'd cut a bloody swath in tonnage with their superb torpedoes*.

*= this is pure conjecture on my part as I'm not a historian

[JasonPratt]

UBOAT is on sale at steam today, for US$9.  :bd:

[Sir Slash]

Damn! That makes me have to use the toilet! :D

[Father Ted]

I thought I recalled the crew using toilets already...? Upgraded toilets were even an important scientific technology, allowing for better silent running when in danger -- I mean in the game last time I played, a few years ago!

But on the other hand, I never saw the crew using the toilet that I recall, so I suppose they mean 'now you can see crewmen going to the toilet and leaving again'. I wonder if you can also catch them slacking off in there, and give them a lecture or worse (as was previously possible elsewhere in the sub).

Whatting off in there?

[JasonPratt]

In the game you can occasionally find sailors loitering around in corners while they're on duty, giving you a chance to shoot them in the head or scale down from there. ;) The toilet closet would seem to be a great place to hang out avoiding work (and also preventing others from using the toilet). So I'm wondering if they coded that option in there: it's an extra corner to slack off in, with the advantage that you (the captain) can't immediately catch them doing it.