UBOAT, WW2 subsim 4/30/19 on Steam

JasonPratt · May 05, 2019, 04:02:21 PM

Finally! http://grogheads.com/forums/index.php?topic=23523.msg646859#msg646859

That's in case this thread goes silent later.

...like a submarine, get it---

Ian C · May 06, 2019, 04:23:13 AM

New patch! B118 (not savegame compatible)

https://store.steampowered.com/news/?appids=494840

JasonPratt · May 06, 2019, 07:42:29 AM

....sigh, yeah we get to mess with that for a while. Understandable, but breaking my saves isn't going to help my demonstration series any!

Fortunately, there's a part 2 which I'm already working on for the second half of this mission, which this patch can't affect (because I've already got the footage to edit up.)

JasonPratt · May 06, 2019, 08:18:43 AM

Meanwhile! -- as I was booking along on editing up part 2 (of 2 now, I suppose

) last night, I got a suspicion that the boat in UBOAT is suppose to be the same sub from the film Das Boot.

I couldn't be entirely sure, because I hadn't watched that film since the days of VHS. Whereupon I discovered that I didn't have a copy anymore because I donated off my VHS collection (probably to the guys at work) when making room for my DVD/Blu collection!

Prime and Netflix couldn't help me (it wasn't available in one of my prepaid subscriptions), so I rented the film from Amazon last night -- they use the Director's cut with the extra 30ish minutes, by the way, although they don't immediately list the film as such. (It also lacks the very decent English dubbing.) Along the way, I discovered that since-the-days-of-VHS, someone has published the full FOUR HOUR AND FIFTY MINUTE edition on DVD! (Not on Blu, but it probably doesn't look good on Blu anyway if Amazon's high def is anything to go by.) So that's on the way. <:-)

(It will probably be edited into its 6 episode miniseries version. Which I'll probably end up editing back down again anyway. ;) )

I didn't need more than the theatrical cut however to quickly be assured that, yep, the devs are using the U-96!

I'm not sure how far they're following the film set vs the actual boat, or if there's even any meaningful distinction, but the tour of the boat near the start of the film looks an awful lot like my episode below in places! Every little piece matches up rather well, with one key difference: in the film (and in real life?) there are 50 men crewing the boat, whereas in the game there are 18 sailors + 5 (current) officers. (You can buy options to expand officers up to 7 iirc.) I'm sure this was done for processing power, plus also for simple navigation issues: you can see in my video how sometimes my officer can get stuck in the engine room (as the usual culprit) for a few seconds until enough crew move out of the way. Things are even more crowded, naturally, in the film.

As in the film (presumably also the book), the sandbox campaign begins at La Rochelle, even though historically the U-96 doesn't seem to have ever been based there. (The author based the book on a compilation of anecdotes he heard plus his own tour on the U-96, but the characters in the film are fictional including his propaganda-officer stand-in character.) Also the film starts in late summer, while the game starts in May. In the sandbox, all the officers (and maybe the sailors) are novices; in the film most of the officers are longtime veterans while... well they say the crew are mostly fresh-faced newbies, but in practice most of the sailors seem old hands with only a few new ones. In reality, by this time the U-96 crew was all well-experienced. Also unlike the film, the U-96 was one of the luckiest German boats relatively, surviving to the very end of the war where in late Spring 1945 it was bombed while docked (as in the film but by then no one was out on missions anymore so it wasn't as much of an ironic tragedy I suppose?) Not one man ever died on the real U-96, and it racked up somewhere in the top ten tonnage records.

Anyway -- it was a blast to see a 'real life' set based as closely as possible on the real thing, matching up with the game I'm playing in first person! I also learned where those extra torps are at: under the gangway in the forward crew bunks/torpedo room. Only the top two torpedoes would be stacked on top of the gangway under the bunks.

Once I finish editing the current mission, and once my DVD set arrives, I may try a side-by-side comparison of shots from the film with shots from the game, if someone hasn't beaten me to it on Youtube by then!

mbar · May 06, 2019, 08:35:50 AM

Great find and write up. (+1 rep)

Pete Dero · May 06, 2019, 08:52:08 AM

^ you didn't have to spend money to find that out.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0082096/faq?ref_=tt_faq_sm

What type of submarine is U-96?

The real U-96 was a Type VIIC U-boat, which was the workhorse of the German Submarine Fleet.

There is a newer tv serie Das Boot featuring the U-612 (not based on real facts) : https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5830254/
Not bad but nothing like the original.

1981 movie

2018 serie

JasonPratt · May 06, 2019, 12:05:40 PM

No, I didn't pay money to find out anything -- I just wanted a DVD copy of Das Boot, since I had never gotten around to replacing my old VHS, and decided to rent the Director's Cut first so I would have a fresh basis (not having watched it in fifteen-ish years) for comparing the 1981 full cut later this week when it arrived.

I'm sure I could have found Das Boot footage on Youtube for free and confirmed the connection between the game and the film's set (or between them back to the real U-96.)

I did _not_ realize there was a new Das Boot series from last year, tho!

Blond_Knight · May 06, 2019, 03:18:06 PM

I watched the thumbnail sized German version with seizure-causing swirls around it on youtube last week. Either I understand more German than I knew, or Ive seen this movie too many times.
Still the game is a lot of fun. I bottomed near the Cardiff docks mission yesterday due to damage and had the crew transfer the water to the bilge with buckets.
I still think the one hour air limit is ridiculous but I must be doing something wrong. Anyway I surfaced only to find the corvette that had fired on us sitting still about 50 yards from us!

10/10 Would get battery straps for the Chief again.

JasonPratt · May 06, 2019, 04:08:34 PM

I suspect, though I haven't tested it demonstrably yet, that the ventilator increases air usage once scrubbing plates are put in.

al_infierno · May 06, 2019, 04:29:58 PM

I was planning on waiting until this is further along in development before pulling the trigger. However, it appears I got a little excited last night after a few beers and watching Jason's video. Whoops. O:-)

Looking forward to giving this a go, but I may still wait before I sink (lol) any serious time into it...

JasonPratt · May 06, 2019, 05:15:22 PM

Personally, I would't blame anyone for waiting right now! -- they clearly aren't past the stage where they BREAK THE CAMPAIGN SAVES WITH THEIR UPDATES! >:(

Blond_Knight · May 06, 2019, 05:46:35 PM

My first attempt at the Cardiff mission. Before I knew reverse was broken.
We are aground und der Herr Kerloin ist sleeping!! Scheisse!!

Sir Slash · May 06, 2019, 06:29:15 PM

RUT-ROW! That could be a problem. Anybody got the number for Sea-Tow?

JasonPratt · May 06, 2019, 07:00:08 PM

"Die Hexen! Schnell!" -- Disney's Bedknobs and Broomsticks film adaptation, paraphrased from memory. (The original book doesn't have her fighting a Nazi commando sub invasion, iirc.)

Barthheart · May 06, 2019, 07:07:34 PM

Quote from: JasonPratt on May 06, 2019, 04:08:34 PM
I suspect, though I haven't tested it demonstrably yet, that the ventilator increases air usage once scrubbing plates are put in.

Yes the scrubber plates adding helps but I found that you actually have to turn the ventilator ON for it to work at all. Then the plates get used up fast but it greatly stretches out your air....

BUT it makes a crap ton of noise while running! #:-)