UBoat - Impressions from Beta-testing

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Thaine
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UBoat - Impressions from Beta-testing

Post by Thaine » Thu Oct 25, 2018 8:35 am

UBOAT is a simulator of a submarine from WWII era. It is a survival sandbox with crew management mechanics ...
https://store.steampowered.com/app/494840/UBOAT/

Epilogue:
I backed this game back in 2016. The first time I saw it I was afraid it would be a world of warship or warthunder arcade shooter in a sub. But I kept coming back to it to check it out further, since it was a subsim.

I have played my fair share of subsims, especially the Silent Hunter series from II to IV. They have their very own style and improved over the years. Some aspects more than others. I remember how thrilled I was when Silent Hunter introduced the 3D crew and crew management. Even only as icons. It was a good start but had it's problems. SIlent Hunter IV improved some of those aspects, whereas Silent Hunter V steered the crew aspect in a very different directions. Although it gave us a walkable submarine, the crew point was only cosmetic.

And this was as well one of the biggest complaints I had with Silent Hunter. I always felt alone in my sub. And the sub in SH IV felt more like a museum then a wartime sub. There was to little life in it. I still enjoyed the series for what it is, played it as realistic as possible without map-updates, manual solutions and real navigation. Still I was always hoping that one day we would have a full, interactive and living crew.

So I was thrilled again when I finally realized that UBoat would address those aspects. Some aspects that Silent Hunter did perfectly, like contact serching, manual solution finding etc would maybe suffer, and as such I expected to get less of a simulation and more of a crew management game. But I was ok with that and backed it, it was only 20 bucks anyways.

Since last week the game is in beta and I'm one of the testers. It's the first time that I'm taking part in beta testing. So far I'm pleased with what I see. The team seems to be responding fast and good to suggestions and bugs and is as well quick in fixing them. But then again it's the first time I'm tester and have nothing to compare them to.

The dev-team asked us to not share videos, streams or screenshots for the time being. This might change in the future and I'll provide more material as soon as they lift this restriction. The screenshots provided here are from the devs.

Getting started:
The current build offers to play a tutorial and in sandbox mode. I want to share a few of my experiences, note necessarily in the order they happened, so you get an impression of the game.

The tutorial guides you through some scripted events and teaches you the main aspects of the game. One can play in first person view, or some out to a side view of the whole sub at any time. One can also zoom out further and have a look at the sub from the outside.
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There some GUI elements that can be used to change speed or depth. Apart from that, everything else is done by sending officers to certain locations in the sub to control the work or manipulate the controls. So for example, you want to switch the bilge pump, you would need to send an officer to the pump to switch it on. In the tutorial you have first one officer under your control, after a while you get more officers and therefore more possibilities to do stuff.

There's as well a map view in addition to the first-person and side view. The crew managementmap has as well several zoom levels, one for long distance navigation, one for more tactical planning. You simply plot the courses you want to go by clicking with the mouse as you would with every of the mill course plotting tool. Contacts, points of interest and spotted ships are displayed as icons on the map. In addition you have indications on how far your crew can see or how far the hydrophone can hear. All positions are subject to error depending on the environmental conditions, the crew skill and fatigue and whatnot factors. It has more a strategy-game feel, less that of a simulation. But it hasn't put me off so far since it clearly has it's place and fits the overall style of the game.

The look and atmosphere:
The overall look of the game is fine. The side view of the sub is pretty good. The sea and waves look fine, and they added a great bow wave effect. Although I think that the the scale of the sub and the sea features, especially in first person view does not match. On the other side, the scale of the sub from first person view is fine. Finally you get an idea on how tall the bulwark of the bridge is, and that you actually have to get on a little step to look over it. The animations when entering up ladders are very well done. Small things that are just cosmetic but add to the atmosphere.

The lighting is superb. At every time you can switch on a torchlight to find your way, should the main lights fail for some reason. It's a scary and very claustrophobic look to see the beam of your light throwing back the features of small compartments and the diesel mist floating through the boat. Very well done and very atmospheric. A big improvement is as well the crew. They go after their duty and you can see variation in what they are doing. It feels dynamic. During routine travel I saw sailors playing cards, someone was mopping the floor, some others sleeping or eating their supper. Now and then sailors on off-watch will enter up to the bridge to have a smoke.

But it looks still quite like a museum at times. There's too little clutter. You can't see clothing hanging around, only the odd potato box or ham suspended from pipes. It doesn't quite look like 20 men, that's the size of the crew I counted, living there.

Operating the sub:
I am really pleased with how UBoat models the technical aspects of the submarine, and what it takes to operate one. You get a feeling of how complex this machine actually is. I guess it's just a scratch on the surface of what really works under the hood of a real sub, but it's the best I've seen so far. The systems that you can operate are still quite general and only a tiny fraction of what the real thing is, I image. They will probably add some more in the future, hopefully.

There's of course the standard positions like radio and hydrophone, electric- and diesel engines, flak and 88mm gun, forward and aft torpedo tubes, observations- and attack periscope, Atlas echo-sounder, as well as the navigation table. Those can be manned by your crew and in part by yourself in first person view. But I found even more machinery that I did not have to deal with in other subsims. Bilge pump, gyrocompas, lights, electric- and diesel compressor, ventilation, dive planes, ballast tanks etc. The positions and machinery one can operate depends as well on the selected officer and his specialization.

All those elements have an effect on how the sub operates, they drain power, consume air, make noise and/or influence the subs buoyancy. There's a couple of info panels that help you estimate the influence of the components. Hovering the mouse over the fuel indication in the GUI gives you information about how much fuel you have, what component drains how much fuel, and how long your fuel will last at that rate. Similar indications are as well there for electrical power, air, the morale of the crew, the subs detectability (both visual, aural and for radar), and it's buoyancy.

But the biggest player in this whole concept is the crew. And I think they did a very good job implementing the crew management. In Silent Hunter (beginning from SH3) the crew was there, but I always struggled to really see what they are good for. It felt like some mini-game in the game, but didn't really tie into the sim. To me it still felt like you are driving the sub alone. You wanted to go to periscope depth, you press "p" or click the GUI button. You could hear somebody acknowledging the command and the sub did it's thing. I think Uboat has improved on that.

I didn't find a periscope depth button or key in Uboat yet, maybe it's there. For now I selected the depth I saw fit for the periscope, depending on sea state. The crew would still acknowledge, clear the bridge, man the dive planes. And then the sub would struggle to get below surface, because it's a hard thing to get the sub below surface with positive buoyancy. So you have to send someone to the valves for flooding the ballast tanks. It's a little thing only, but for me it adds a lot of immersion. This makes emergency dive operations as well more dependent on you. How good did you plan ahead positioning people ready to flood the tanks. Should you flood the tanks in advance when traveling through dangerous areas?

The hunt begins:
I'm on my first patrol in the sandbox mode. We received a call for help from another sub north of England and are on our way there. The men follow their routines and duties everything seems calm. Occasional radio traffic, nothing extraordinary.

An allied aircraft makes us dive to safety upon reaching the west coast of Ireland. By coincidence we detect propeller noises to our northeast, seems like they come from an outgoing convoy. Making sure the planes have disappeared, we surface the boat and head for the convoy. I send extra crew to aid the engineer with the diesel engines, enabling them to run on a higher gear and faster. The watch officer has his extra men on the bridge anyways to not be surprised by aircraft again or miss any feature on the horizon. My other engineer plus some men are send the forward forward torpedo room to prepare everything. They pull out each of the four torpedoes to warm them up, lowering the chances for duds. The radio officer makes a final check on the radios for any hint or messages, allied or axis. Then he's send to his bunk to rest. He will be needed once we submerge and he's to man the hydrophones.

This whole preparation felt a bit like this...
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Kildren
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Re: UBoat - Impressions from Beta-testing

Post by Kildren » Thu Oct 25, 2018 10:14 am

wish i had backed this
1







Speak to me about joining the ACG Pilots Union

Thaine
Posts: 5114
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Re: UBoat - Impressions from Beta-testing

Post by Thaine » Thu Oct 25, 2018 2:55 pm

I don't expect it to be expensive once released. Especially if you wait for the next steam sale.
Fractal Design Define R6 / Gigabyte Z390 AORUS MASTER / Intel i9-9900K / 32 GB RAM / NVIDIA GeForce GTX2080Ti / WD Black SN750 / Corsair Hydro H100i RGB Platinum / Corsair RM850x / WINDOWS 10 / LG 42LE5300 / TrackIR / HP Reverb G2 / Saitek AV8R-MK3 / Saitek ProFlight Throttle Quadrant / Saitek ProFlight Rudder Paddels / Saitek ProFlight Cessna Trim Wheel
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Vanguard
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Re: UBoat - Impressions from Beta-testing

Post by Vanguard » Thu Oct 25, 2018 3:37 pm

Thanks for the review Thaine, it's reassuring to get your opinion on the game.
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The pilot shall be considered to have above-average intelligence and normal (average) common sense.

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Mezza
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Re: UBoat - Impressions from Beta-testing

Post by Mezza » Thu Oct 25, 2018 7:33 pm

looks pretty good.. just watched the new trailer on steam

LuftAsher
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Re: UBoat - Impressions from Beta-testing

Post by LuftAsher » Sun Oct 28, 2018 1:12 pm

Game is great fun so far. The crew management is fun, and the first person view is awesome. The sub interior is extremely well modeled. VR would be fucking amazing in this game, no doubt about it.

It's quite badly optimised at the moment, but I suppose that's to be expected. Eagerly awaiting full release.

Thaine
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Re: UBoat - Impressions from Beta-testing

Post by Thaine » Thu Nov 01, 2018 2:21 pm

The devs allowed us to post screenshots, but asked to not share bug-related media before they have a chance to fix it.

KptLt. Biernot is on the hunt again (with the latest build).
We're leaving La Rochelle
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Bow torpedo room:
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Officers bunks with view to Bow torpedo room
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Control room
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Petty officers room
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Diesel engine room
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Electric engine and stern torpedo room
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We spot two freighters. I order to dive to 10 m. Two men at the hydrophone. The engineer in the bow torpedo room warms up one to the torpedoes. The chief engineer oversees the dive-plane steering for accurate depth control. The first watch officer mans the attack periscope for the time being, and observers until we are in position for calculating a solution.
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Eventually the captain and another sailor take over the targeting process and calculate solutions for both targets. We fire two salvos a two torpedoes. One for each freighter.
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Both salvos hit their target. Within no time the freighters go down. Small boats, dinghies and some cargo boxes are left floating (I didn't interact with the survivors or searched the wreckage. However I think it's possible).
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We resurface and get the hell out of here.
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Fractal Design Define R6 / Gigabyte Z390 AORUS MASTER / Intel i9-9900K / 32 GB RAM / NVIDIA GeForce GTX2080Ti / WD Black SN750 / Corsair Hydro H100i RGB Platinum / Corsair RM850x / WINDOWS 10 / LG 42LE5300 / TrackIR / HP Reverb G2 / Saitek AV8R-MK3 / Saitek ProFlight Throttle Quadrant / Saitek ProFlight Rudder Paddels / Saitek ProFlight Cessna Trim Wheel
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IronJockel
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Re: UBoat - Impressions from Beta-testing

Post by IronJockel » Thu Nov 01, 2018 5:27 pm

Thx for sharing!
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Any idiot could fly a Spitfire, but it took a lot of training to fly a 109. - Gerald Stapleton

Thaine
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Re: UBoat - Impressions from Beta-testing

Post by Thaine » Wed May 06, 2020 9:10 am

New and important update in testing.

Wolfpacks are on the list.

https://store.steampowered.com/news/?appids=494840
Fractal Design Define R6 / Gigabyte Z390 AORUS MASTER / Intel i9-9900K / 32 GB RAM / NVIDIA GeForce GTX2080Ti / WD Black SN750 / Corsair Hydro H100i RGB Platinum / Corsair RM850x / WINDOWS 10 / LG 42LE5300 / TrackIR / HP Reverb G2 / Saitek AV8R-MK3 / Saitek ProFlight Throttle Quadrant / Saitek ProFlight Rudder Paddels / Saitek ProFlight Cessna Trim Wheel
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Wiesel
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Re: UBoat - Impressions from Beta-testing

Post by Wiesel » Wed Dec 23, 2020 2:10 pm

UBoat is now 50 % off and I bought it. Looks very nice so far.
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