Uboat's current beta, initial thoughts

[GoldenRivet]

I have had a couple of days to dive back into UBOAT using the new "Unstable - Unstable" beta branch which preceeds full release of the game. Here are my initial reactions.

OVERALL

My honest summation is that what this dev team has done for the submarine simulation genre is nothing short of specacular. Uboat, in its current "vanilla" beta is, in my opinion, the finest example of a world war II subsim yet. And given the forbearers of the genre, thats quite a statement.

frankly, the current beta is to UBOAT, what the GWX mod was to SHIII

IMMERSION

The boat is more alive than ever, the crew whispers in hushed tones when it is appropriate to do so, they make timely and accurate reports, and even read out the basics of radio messages from BDU allowing you to decide if you feel the message is important enough to read it in full text own your own.

an example is the September 1st, 1939 sailing of my boat when we got into the north sea some distance and a radio message was received. I didnt even have to open it. The radio officer simply said something to the effect that he had received a new radio message and it appears we are now at war with Great Britain. Some time later France entered the fray and the radio operator even said that we are only to take defensive actions against the french.

Several other immersive actions have been added to the game, my favorite so far followed a successful first patrol. After some time on our second patrol i found - oddly - that i could not use time acceleration. It was then that i noticed a conversation bubble above one of my sailors, so i clicked it...

"Captain, i found a bottle of champaigne stashed away here"

great... a crew discipline issue was my first thought, but the sailor continued

"there is a note with it... Congratulations on your successful patrol!
~Doenitz"

The champaigne bottle was then added to my inventory in the cabinet storage space. Following our next sinking, i was actually able to ration champaign out to the crew to celebrate.

another immersive occurrence had me receiving a radio message from BDU informing us that a crewman's family has welcomed a newborn baby. You then have the option of finding this crewman and informing him of the news and witnessing his grateful reaction.

Im sure there are many other similar situations that i have not yet witnessed

SMALL ENHANCEMENTS = BIG IMPROVEMENTS

other terrific improvements come in the form of many small details.

Such as the Kiel Canal, you can traverse it one waypoint at a time and take in the scenic views, or you can "fast travel" through the canal, arriving in the north sea after a fade to black followed by the cimenatic text "11 hours later" where you can resume your own waypoint plotting. This can also be done on leaving port, once you have traveled a certain distance from the dock, you have the option of fast travel out to sea

The TDC is now fully functional and can be used directly, or by an officer assigned to it. In fact i am very happy with the way torpedo data solutions are now much more realistically carried out. At the attack periscope, when locked on a target and the target is identified, you still time the target for speed, gauge AOB, and range... but this means nothing unless you hit the little text bubbles next to where you have entered this data.

Clicking on the text bubble by a data box actually shouts (or whispers) the given parameter to the officer manning the TDC, which he in turn sets based on your collected data.

"Update target data, speed... 8 knots!" after a second or two, the little white light next to this data point illuminates indicating the officer has entered it into the TDC

"Angle on bow... 60 degrees right!" again, after a momentary delay, the light illuminates

"Range... 1700 meters!" again, the light illuminates

after a few seconds the small light indicating the torpedo gyro angle is set illuminates and you are ready to fire.

to me, this is so far the most realistic and satisfying approach to firing off a torpedo to be had yet in a subsim, largely because you feel like you are part of a crew carrying out these actions rather than just entering data quickly and pressing a button as a player.

There are many other details that you as a captain are forced to confront requiring you to run your Uboat in new and unique ways - ways that are arguably more true to reality.

In many prior subsims we watched a small circle race across a map, until such time that we had to do a sound check or actually make an attack on a target. The filller in UBOAT changes this completely.

On my most recent patrol, about a day out of Kiel, passing Helgoland, i was again dropped out of time compression. and a sailor had something to say. Apparently a fight broke out between two sailors, and the aggressor seriously injured one of my men. As the captain i had a couple of choices with the errant sailor (1) let the man off with a warning or (2) have him arrested and court martialed for the offense - both of which have different effects on the morale of the crew.

A medical officer tended to the wounded man, and his wound was such that he needed a hospital. So, we diverted to Helgoland, dropped off the wounded man, and had the other arrested. While in port, i took advantage to top off fuel, take on another 2 sailors to replace those i had lost, and resumed my voyage with nary a day lost. In subsims of the past... you just dont have these kinds of plausible realistic scenarios to deal with. I dont have the documentation to show that such a thing ever happened aboard a U-Boat, but could it have? have similar events taken place? sure

Now, rather than having a bunch of 2D representations of crewmen on a crew management / damage control screen like years past... we have actual crew moving around the boat that perform their various jobs, they eat, they lay in their bunks reading magazines... or they lay there seriously injured with the clock ticking and their fate in your hands. Such things certainly add a unique and interesting dynamic to the game play.

EDIT: we have the green triangle in the persicope... looking for a way to make this go away, and i am unsure why developers continue this tradition. i think maybe its an inside joke. LOL

PLAY AS CAPTAIN MODE


This is the mode i was most looking forward to - and i will give it the fact that it is "experimental" - but it has turned out to be my least favorite way to play Uboat so far.

firstly, it eliminates all of the external views. while this may be a hard core element for some players, UBOAT is visually stunning, and i feel that those exterior shots need to be admired from time to time... unfortunately this mode seems to trap you in first person perspective taking away a lot of that element of being able to appreciate the beauty of UBOAT

secondly, this mode has teething issues that just pushed me back to more traditional means of play. I think they need to erase the captain's need for rest, for example... otherwise there are several hour periods in game, that your captain just wont be available. Especially if he has reached the point of exhaustion.

I am going to tinker with this mode a bit more before i really make my mind up on it... but i find the traditional means of play to be far more gratifying at present.

HARD CORE OPTIONS

just to name off a few of the things that enhance the challenge of uboat is the map contacts options can now be totally disabled. the sonar operator will provide you bearing and distance to a sound target, but actually navigating 30 miles away and finding the target can be a bit of a guessing game with this mode enabled.

Gone are the signposts showing the source of a sound contact - which i am thankful for this - as the Dev team has taken on a more traditional radial line on the map showing the general direction of a sound contact rather than plotting its movement across the map - this puts the experience more in line with what popular subsims of the past (SH3 / 4) have offered up.

EDIT: there are now options where you do not interact with headquarters at all, and technology is researched and completed on a historic timeline. I am glad to have this, as i found sending crew to research and unlock new technology on a whim to be unrealistic.

SOUND EFFECTS

bone stock sound effects have been dialed up and modified extensively. The deck gun for example now sounds like it packs one helluva punch. Additionally, a great many speech files have been added to the game - gone is the "schneller schneller" at each engine telegraph selection... they now speak out the selections individually. these are just a couple of many examples.

STABILITY

for something called an unstable beta - i have not experienced a single crash to desktop. In fact, with only the occasional stutter, or pause (such as when entering a new port) my PC has handled the current release trouble free... and she is 8 years old now; Intel Core i7-6700k CPU @ 4.00GHz, 4001 Mhz with Radeon RX 480, and 16G RAM im certainly not running the latest and greatest game tower.

CONCLUSION

Uboat is charting new horizons with its methods of gamelpay and immersive features. The feel of the current beta is more natural than UBOAT has been at any previous state of release. Once the final version is released, it will hold its own... and as usual, eing intentionally easier to mod, UBOAT will be - for years to come - a formidable title and a favorite of any avid subsimmer willing to commit to a bit steeper than traditional learning curve. And one thing is for sure, this small dev team loves this project, and their continued support and committment to it show 100% in their product, to them, i offer my thanks sincerely. Job well done!

so... post in reply, what have you enjoyed or not enjoyed about the current beta? I'd love to hear your feedback

[Paajtor]

Nice summery!
I'm not playing this yet, but I do watch plenty of streams & video's about Uboat.

What strikes me from the beginning, and has carried over into this beta, is the floating physics of the uboat.
When it's stationary in - let's say rough seas - it looks like it floats on rails.
In reality, it should be much more rocking up&down and rolling sideways.

And when travelling...again in rougher seas, I miss the pulled-down effect on the stern.
Ie, a vessel's screw(s) have a tendency to keep the stern a bit pulled down, because of their sheer force.
While the bow gets pushed upwards, while riding the waves...and splashing down in every gulf valley.
I miss this behaviour in Uboat.

How do you feel about this?
And...can modders change this behaviour?

[GoldenRivet]

It has been my experience that the boat does rock more fore and aft than port to starbd but there are both pitching and rolling motions apparent.

I give the sea physics a solid B+ in Uboat. all around however i guess im just not as concerned about that specific element. I felt that the boat in SHIII would just cut through just about any sea unabated. GWX did the most to fix this by making the boat lose some speed when plunging the bow in rough seas.

I think UBOAT gets it about as close as the game engine can.

[Paajtor]

Yeah I remember the GWX fix indeed.
Do you know whether the Devs read these forums?
Tbh, I never post on Steam.

[dark270]

i have three patrols under the belt, and absolutely addicted and love this game....ok back to the game

[GoldenRivet]

Originally Posted by Paajtor

Yeah I remember the GWX fix indeed.
Do you know whether the Devs read these forums?
Tbh, I never post on Steam.

i think? maybe?

it would certainly be wise of them to do this since subsim is probably the largest hub and gathering place on earth for everything related to the genre

it is also - i have always argued - the very best online community to be found anywhere

[Quasimodo]

Originally Posted by Paajtor

Yeah I remember the GWX fix indeed.
Do you know whether the Devs read these forums?
Tbh, I never post on Steam.

Yes they do read the comments in the 'Discussion' forum. (In Steam). I've been playing U-Boat since it first came out. During that time the devs have always added updates and fixes to the game. And now with the Beta addition you can start your career with a Type II.

[rik007]

I had a communist on board which was spreading propaganda. I opted for a court martial.