UBOAT, WW2 subsim 4/30/19 on Steam

[trek]

Well, since I'm already here: I bought U-Boat yesterday morning when it was unlocked. Will play some of it this morning. Like many of you I'm not sure about the crew management aspect of the game either. However I took the tack that I would support the devs by buying the game anyway. After all it's been 10 years since SH5 came out and any new subsim is welcome to me. As soon as Wolfpack implements the promised bots for the crew I will buy that one too. And at the introductory price of $26 it's a reasonable buy. When the modders start working on this (and they will) this game will no doubt have a bright future. The devs seem like they are very open to suggestions and making changes as they continue to develop the game too.

I'm looking forward to everyone's gameplay impressions to compare with mine as we all get into this one.

[trek]

Great first impression description of the game over at SubSim for those of you that may be on the fence about U-Boat

www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=240953

[bboyer66]

Great first impression description of the game over at SubSim for those of you that may be on the fence about U-Boat

www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=240953

Protip: Turn off Bloom in the graphics settings to remove the overly large amount of haze and distortion

I'm going to try and finish the tutorial again today, and give sandbox mode a go. It seems that a lot of the problems I was having might be hard-coded into just the tutorial itself. Unlike this guy I never saw my guys repairing things autonomously. He also talks about assigning crewmen to each officer with a + or - , not sure what he is talking about as far as that goes either.

  Every compartment has 3 symbols that you can click on, one appears to turn off the lights, not so sure what the others do. Anyone know?

[W8taminute]

Thanks for the link trek.  I've been on the fence about this game but I'm starting to think I'm going to get it.  Look forward to more impressions from you all.

[JasonPratt]

Good points about the modders!

After two hours last night, I really didn't feel like I was having to micromanage everyone. If anything, I felt like the captain was micromanaging me! -- but not really.

I would be farther along the tutorial (now searching for an important target using hydrophones, not to spoil anything), except that I accidentally sank the boat even farther to the bottom than the game seems to have intended, and rather like the movie U-boot, I used too much of my reserve air trying to get to the surface before realizing what I had done wrong. (Unlike those guys, my damage wasn't so bad, but I compounded it by not locking off the compartments properly.) So I had a tense 45 minutes or so trying to get things pumped out and repaired enough to return to the surface. As things stand, I should probably stop trying to find the target by hydrophones and go visual, since I need to run the diesels a while and recharge the batteries. (The game starts before Britain has declared war, which happens while we're on the mission, so this sub might be top class for mid 1939 maybe -- I don't know enough to be sure --  but it doesn't have a snorkel to run diesels at periscope depth.)


Anticipating the question: ordering the crew to lock off the affected areas was easy. The problem was that the captain didn't order me to create a buffer zone, so when I tried to send a guy in to repair the damage I forgot I hadn't created a lockout area on my own initiative and ended up flooding most of the sub!  #:-)

Note to self, I need to check the option screen (inaccessible during gameplay for some reason) and figure out how to sprint! -- the crew will do it when simply ordered around (or on their own initiative when they think it's appropriate), but I don't know how to do it when taking control in first person.

Being unable to save during the long tutorial is a baaaaaad design choice -- maybe doing so would break the script?? I get to do things all over again this afternoon or tonight. But maybe I'll stream it so you guys can watch...

But anyway, I wasn't ever ordering around more than 3 people; most of the time only two, including 'myself'. And there's a pause feature for setting up orders, so it doesn't have to be hectic. It's like running a party of characters in Balder's Gate or any decent RPG: they'll do what seems best if left to their own devices, at their own rate. They're out on watch, and manning various controls, and cooking, and swabbing the bilge (I've got the option turned on where some water leaks into the lower parts of the sub all the time.) I love it so far!

Is it Silent Hunter 3 modded up? No, much less the sequels modded up. (Dispute about which is better as you wish.) Is it a good start, considering the game is in Late Alpha? Yes. Do I think I was somewhat misled about what state the game would be upon release? Yes, I think the devs omitted some crucial information, but to be fair I could have also simply refunded it on Steam before my 2 hours were up. (Which they are now.) Currently I think it's a keeper.

[mbar]

I played part way into the tutorial but got stuck on what to do once the engine compartment flooded. Like bboyer66 said the tutorial almost needs it's own tutorial. I evacuated the engine room once I found the teeny tiny icon they wanted me to press. But then a valve needs to be turned to blow the ballast. Nothing was happening for me. I was going back and forth (in overview) trying to bail the water out or open the bulk head and trying the valve yet again. Bed time came so I called it a night.

The game smoothly switches from overview, cutaway view and first person with a simple role of the mouse wheel. You control about 5 officers which you assign to stations depending on skill. You can set them and forget them or have them do specific tasks and they will go back to their bunk when finished. There are quick menu buttons for the different stations and quick settings like "periscope depth."

I will spend more time tonight.

[Pete Dero]

https://steamcommunity.com/games/494840/announcements/detail/1622895822971777315

Patch (beta) is released.

Go to properties of the game in the library, move to the last tab - BETAS and pick the Unstable branch from the drop-down menu

The fixes are as follow:

    Disabled certain physics optimizations to fix crashes on CPUs that don't support SSE4 or AVX.
    Important performance improvements related to rendering.
    Noticeable optimizations to memory usage and execution time of terrain generation procedure. Fixed few related bugs found during stress tests.
    Fixed few RAM/VRAM memory leaks related to entering and leaving scene areas like ports.
    One of the AA guns in La Rochelle was sticking out of the port.
    Objective ordering player to equip breathing apparatus during tutorial could stay indefinitely on the screen.
    Engine gears could stay indefinitely blocked on the UI telegraph.
    Decreased resolution of some less important textures.
    FPP on-screen hints don't appear at the beginning of the tutorial, because they explain functions that are disabled at this point.
    Fixed multiple issues appearing after leaving tutorial by clicking the button on the mission completion message (not being able to leave upgrades view, missing saves and more).

Reviews on release day+1 look far more positive then on release day.

My resistance will fail in a few hours I guess.

[W8taminute]

You guys got me worried now.  Is there no way to just play the game without having to play the tutorial?  I get the impression that in order to unlock the sandbox mode the player must complete and win the tutorial.  With no way to save your progress I would quickly throw the game out and demand my money back.

[Pete Dero]

I get the impression that in order to unlock the sandbox mode the player must complete and win the tutorial. 

I don't have it (yet) but I think you can access sandbox mode from the start.

[bboyer66]

You guys got me worried now.  Is there no way to just play the game without having to play the tutorial?  I get the impression that in order to unlock the sandbox mode the player must complete and win the tutorial.  With no way to save your progress I would quickly throw the game out and demand my money back.

No you don't have to play the tutorial to play in sandbox mode. Honestly you might be better off going that route based on the current state of the tutorial.

[W8taminute]

You guys got me worried now.  Is there no way to just play the game without having to play the tutorial?  I get the impression that in order to unlock the sandbox mode the player must complete and win the tutorial.  With no way to save your progress I would quickly throw the game out and demand my money back.

No you don't have to play the tutorial to play in sandbox mode. Honestly you might be better off going that route based on the current state of the tutorial.

Nice!  That's very good to hear. 

[Ian C]

Great first impression description of the game over at SubSim for those of you that may be on the fence about U-Boat

www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=240953

Bloody hell, that's a great review. I think I'm gonna cave.

[Barthheart]

...He also talks about assigning crewmen to each officer with a + or - , not sure what he is talking about as far as that goes either.

When you have an officer selected, look in the bottom left corner of the screen. There's a panel telling you the estate of the officer and what he is doing. Near the right side of that panel there is a + and - sign for adding or subtracting crew to help him out with that task.

  Every compartment has 3 symbols that you can click on, one appears to turn off the lights, not so sure what the others do. Anyone know?

One is to seal off the compartment (small red symbol farthest left of three), one is lights, not sure what the other does yet.

I played the tutorial for 79 minutes, according to Steam, yesterday and just got to the part where we were being shelled by an escort after reaching the wreck.
When I try it again, I'll get to that point much faster because I now know what I'm supposed to be doing, instead of poking at things while we slowly sail along.... like causing a dive by playing with the valves button in the control room. Then having to get the compressor going to replace the air I wasted getting us back to the surface.
This time I'll use the time compression more for a quicker journey to the wreck.

[Ian C]

I don't think I've ever laughed so hard in a tutorial. The first part where you have to select 4 points  - I'm slamming into the walls of the docks. I guess I'm doing something wrong....EDIT - I got it now.

This looks amazing.

[Pete Dero]

I played the tutorial for 79 minutes, according to Steam, yesterday and just got to the part where we were being shelled by an escort after reaching the wreck.
When I try it again, I'll get to that point much faster because I now know what I'm supposed to be doing

So it is true that you can't save in the tutorial ?