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Old 09-20-22, 04:26 PM   #46
Sonarman
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A new version of the beta seems to have been released on Steam today (20/9/21) the battles now feature a cutscene sequence at the beginning, motion blur seems to have been eliminated / reduced and I am finding that the graphics are running better on my laptop, there seems to be more graphic options available over the previous beta build.
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Old 09-20-22, 05:18 PM   #47
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I can't find a changelog anywhere, so I'm not sure what exactly we're supposed to be testing other than the giant list of stuff that's already been reported.
Also have to say, I'm not a fan of the forced cutscene before starting a battle. It can't be skipped, and as the player I feel like I'm losing time to give my own orders and intercept the U-boat.

I'm still encountering up to 3 U-boats on the easy scenario, which to me doesn't feel that easy. There is only one other escort, and the two of us were tied up with Alpha and Bravo targets when Charlie came in unimpeded and started sinking merchants. Air support never showed up.
I don't think wolf packs should be a thing until at least the medium difficulty.
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Old 09-21-22, 06:47 AM   #48
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so far save game works ok. Sub behaviour is still too aggressive and small shouldnt have 3 uboats only 1 . More feedback later but subs TOO aggressive
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Old 09-21-22, 12:53 PM   #49
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I've managed to get an oil slick and wreckage to appear after a depth charge drop, but the u-boat is still going after that.
Is this normal?

The amount of wreckage floating seems like a large hole was blown in the sub. I don't understand why it isn't sunk and out of the fight at this point.

Also, periscopes out of the water are still suddenly disappearing after a few seconds of being called out by the lookouts. It looks like a graphical bug. This was present in the last closed beta build.
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Old 09-21-22, 02:48 PM   #50
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You cannot switch seachlights off, 1 goes off 1 stays on. Subs are still too nimble, they would go silent running when chased by escort with a normal speed of 2-3 knots and the odd burst of 6-7 knots when dc,s where dropped. It should feel like a game of cat and mouse and it doesnt. A small scenario had 4 subs attacking over 45 mins it really wasnt like this in real life. The game needs time compression and fight the battle over a longer period using save game facility. I stress, subs too nimble and cat and mouse game less subs attackinging.
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Old 09-21-22, 02:59 PM   #51
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ok so just found tactical setup works so just set up a battle , what i would like to see is that your on the escort run game 5 to 10 mins or more then you get a contact then the cut scene kicks in with general quarters being sounded ect. It comes back to the start of the game creating suspense, i would mind if you had 15mins without a contact as i want to play out each battle for 5 to 6 hours say using save game. So sequence = game starts convoy moving as is escort we get a contact the cutscene kicks in then the fun starts with a cat and mouse adventure with sub keeping to realistic speeds and turning speed. Hope this helps, just my views offcourse
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Old 09-21-22, 06:39 PM   #52
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The u-boat is consistently doing 8 knots submerged. I decided to get behind him and slow to 1/3 speed to see if the distance increased or decreased, but it always remained at 600 yards over three sonar calls.

If the u-boat is cruising at no less than 8 knots, this makes it really difficult to get depth charges to land in his path when he makes a turn to evade, which he always does.

The destroyer can't turn tight enough to get charges directly in his path if you start the turn as soon as you hear (or see it on the plotting table) that the sub is making a sharp turn.
At 8 knots, the sub will be laterally out of the path the destroyer can make in its own turn.

No wonder I keep missing my depth charge attacks. The few times I've managed to get hits and make an oil slick appear is when I guessed which way the sub would turn ahead of time (which is a 50/50 guess) and try to guesstimate his path and drive over it with a shallow pattern.

Also, you can see from the screenshot that the u-boat was driving in straight line at a deep depth.
Even coming up on him from directly his stern, preparing a deep pattern, and dropping when the printer showed the contact pattern crossing the dotted black line, I could never get the depth charges to hit him.
Right now I'd say it's impossible to hit a deep sub using the visual cues from the equipment. Something is off.
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Old 09-22-22, 02:52 AM   #53
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I just cant empasise how much of a game killer 2 aspects are in this beta, 1. as soon as you start the cutscene and straight away a contact. This should be about raising some tension by letting the game run convoy on course perhaps up to 15 mins and then contact and then the cutscene comes in.
2. The behavior of the submarine is all wrong, on the surface 14 to 18 knots was the speed of a type 7 so thats fine, fast and manouvable but once dived than the sub could run at 7 to 8 knots for short bursts but once hunting started they were more likely to go at silent speed 2 to 3 knots and could not turn on a sixpence.
To make the game exciting and tense then the chase should be slow tense sonar contact gained and lost , both sub and escort trying to get into position , escort chasing the sub away from the convoy and sometimes getting a kill. For the real enthusiasts thats how the game should run in my view, for the casual gamers have a different difficulty level where the currant game may be ok.
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Old 09-22-22, 05:12 AM   #54
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Although some game mechanics still need to be adjusted, this new Beta version shows an excellent improvement from the previous one.
Game saves and the possibility to make a "custom battle" are a huge difference.
I have created a custom battle with 4 escorts, 20 merchant ships, and 2 subs in a 2 hour scenario that looks credible to me and the results were:



Here are my notes about this new patch.
I just LOVE the intro scene It provides excellent immersion and shows the great detail of the different ship stations. I do not share the opinion that this cutscene generates any difficulties or delays engaging the the sub. The game has not even fully started yet, and I like the intro scene. However, I have seen it already 3 times and mostly it was the same scene. The problem may be that this may become repetitive and boring once you have been playing it for a while, so I would suggest having " a few different versions" of it if possible, and most importantly, the possibility for the player to "skip" it if he chooses so.

Some issues I have seen are that despite selecting "clear" weather, there are always fog patches and visibility is a little bit limited while I was expecting to have just a clear day.
I have seen that the subs behaviour has changed a bit. They try to evade and move away from the convoy after being engaged and taking some damage:rather than continuing as kamikazesI also notice a lot more zig-zag maneuvers and depth changes.
However, they remain overly aggressive and frequently maintain flank speed, whereas the tactic of slowing down and accelerating only when the DD is on the final run proved to be the most effective in real life.
The reason these subs are easy to "hit" is because they remain at shallow depth most of the time. Only once did I have to make a "deep" attack. So subs are relatively easy to hit, but not so easy to skink or be rendered "combat ineffective." I hit one sub several times, generating an oil slick and even a field of debris and floatsam, which was impressive, but the sub remained alive and kept on maneuvering, although this time evading the convoy. The visuals of the depth charges exploding have improved a lot, especially with low light conditions. They are spectacular.

I still don't like the sounds of the depth charge launchers, or the fact that I can hear the launching of charges from ships at 8000 meters away as if they were my own charges from where I am. I do not believe I should hear other ships launching charges unless they are really close to my own position.

One of the most unrealistic and annoying aspects is that AI escort ships constantly update me with GPS precision on the position of the sub I am attacking, such as "ABLE is 400 yards from Blodhound relative 223o."It appears to me that they should be concentrating on their own attack rather than constantly providing me with uninvited enemy positions.This is a game changer since it makes the DD's life much easier. It is impossible for the sub to escape detection once we have 1 Ai ship and 1 human in the area. Not even huge barrages of DC and the noise that they generate prevent the sub being constantly "locked" There is no way to lose it.This also means that when you have 4 warships attacking 2 different subs and each of them is continuously sending reports, the radio chatter is saturated and my sonarman reports get delayed.
I would love to have a way to select a filter to block or give priority to the messages. If I'm in the final run to drop, all I want to hear is from my sonarman, not reports of another attack in another sub far away.

The tactical screen is centered on the own ship, but due to zoom limitations, it is difficult to zoom in and see other escorts, enemy sub positions, and marks if you are not close to the own ship.

AI escorts ignore you and do not care about colliding with you if a human ship and one AI ship are attacking the same sub. You have to be the one that has to prevent collisions since the AI ignores your position and does not maneuver to avoid it even if you are in a position where you should have priority.

One nice to-have feature would be the possibility of selecting the different escorts and even the airplane in the external view to see what they do. I know this is not "realistic" (neither is the own ship's external view), but it does not provide any tactical advantage and may provide nice and attractive visuals (for videos )

I have already mentioned in other posts, I would love to have the option of switching off the ASDIC and using only passive hydrophones (and also be able to order the same to the AI) if you finally manage to move the game from the "shooting sandbox" concept and make it more of a "search and hunt" idea. Searching subs was mostly done by passive hydrophones and that was a very powerful tool for that, while ASDIC was mostly used not for the initial location" but for the attack.

Another item for the future is that the game now operates in 3 different depth levels. Shallow, medium and deep. But what happens is that the sub operates exactly on this criteria, so if I know the sub is, let's say, "medium depth," my DC will explode exactly at that depth, But what is medium depth? In real life, if the sub was at 50 meters depth but I launched my DC set to explode at let's say 80 meters, those chages would surely not kill the sub even if they explode exactly in the sub's position but 30 meters deeper. The DD has a system to "estimate" the sub depth by calculating the distance to the sub the moment the sub moves out of the ASDIC preset cone. In other words, knowing the exact depth of the sub was a difficult but vital element to getting a kill and the actual system simplifies it a bit too much, making it much easier for the DD captain.

These are my comments. a significant improvement over the previous patch!!!!!!
I have really enjoyed today's game a lot I love to see that the developers have given a lot of love to their product and I am confident that once the small issues are tweaked, we will have the "definitive" Destroyer simulation here !!!
Thanks a lot!!!
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Last edited by Furia; 09-22-22 at 02:19 PM.
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Old 09-22-22, 10:42 AM   #55
Artur Salwarowski
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Hello everybody!

We have just rolled out a new and improved version of the beta (build ID: 9570662). The changelog below lists only the most important improvements:

-‘custom battle’ is now functional
-U-boat aggression and numbers have been toned down
-tactical 101 video now launches after the tutorial
-info on collisions added in mission summary
-more stable save game
-more stable tutorial

Known issues that remain:

CBDR requires further adjustments

Next subjects on our list:

CBDR
broad/narrow depth charge salvos


Please let us know how you like the new version. We did our best to introduce as much of your feedback as possible in the short amount of time. We will continue to improve the game after the EA release in order to iron all the creases and add all the missing features ASAP, and then we will move on to the campaign and lots of other cool stuff

We really hope that you will stay excited about Destroyer and that your feedback will help us tailor the game to your expectations. We are looking forward to your opinions on th new build, and, in the meantime, we will continue working to make CBDR more reliable and less annoying
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Old 09-22-22, 01:33 PM   #56
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just downloaded the new update, thankyou for continuing to improve the beta, I shall buy the game when released but can i suggest the you provide a roadmap so that we can see where the game is going and detail the changes in each update, thank you for listening
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Old 09-22-22, 04:51 PM   #57
Topo65
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Version 0.9.7 is much better. Submarine detection becomes more difficult. I think the introductory video gets repetitive, you should be able to skip with the ESC key for example. Also the distance at which the battle starts could be an option.
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Old 09-22-22, 07:04 PM   #58
Sonarman
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The new tutorial intro video is a nice edition but I am finding it is running in a slow and stuttery way on my reasonably new laptop, noticed this also with the sub torpedoing the merchant ship video.
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Old 09-23-22, 07:55 AM   #59
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I fully agree about the cutscene when you start the game, its the point i made earlier about being rushed into the game by the time the cutscene has finished the sub has gone 2000 yds closer to the convoy. Al option of starting the sub further a way is a great idea, im not sure what range the radar was at this stage of the war but i think it was quite a bit further than 6000 yds. So perfect start for me id 1. start the game , convoy moving along and i can get my bearings and then a radar plot at say 8000yds cutscene kicks in and ive still got plenty of time to start and hunt for the target.
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Old 09-23-22, 08:14 AM   #60
Artur Salwarowski
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Hello everyone,

New update: version 0.9.8 (build ID:9578079)

changelog:

-gameplay opening cutscene is now skippable (yes, we hear ya )
-corrected audio and performance in video content
-depth charge camera now has text that says who is attacking who

Thank you very much for the kind words, we are glad you are enjoying the new and improved versions! Have fun, and do let us know about your impressions.

PLEASE BEAR IN MIND THAT THE BETA CLOSES ON THE 28th, as soon as we release the EA Version.
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