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Destroyer: The U-Boat Hunter
Asid:
Destroyer: the U-Boat Hunter is an interactive war thriller which seamlessly blends tactical WW2 anti-submarine warfare simulation with a gripping storyline. Take command of a meticulously reconstructed Fletcher-class destroyer and lead your crew against nazi U-boats in the Battle of the...
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DESTROYER: the U-Boat Hunter - cinematic trailer
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Destroyer: The U-Boat Hunter is an interactive war thriller which seamlessly blends tactical WW2 anti-submarine warfare simulation with a gripping storyline, presented through Hollywoodesque, interactive cutscenes. Take command of a meticulously reconstructed Fletcher-class destroyer and lead your crew against nazi U-Boats in the Battle of the Atlantic!
The story unfolds through a choice and consequence mechanic, allowing the player to shape the fate of the crew plunged into a deadly struggle against a devious and stealth enemy. They will have to overcome both the underwater threat and their own shortcomings in order to make sure that the convoy they are protecting makes it safely across the pond.
Lead a whole destroyer squadron and make tactical decisions to protect your sheep from the steel wolves. Track contacts and plot anti-submarine attacks using authentic equipment. Experience war at sea from the perspective of a tin can sailor, and shape the story as it develops, making key decisions both in and outside the heat of battle.
It is all in your hands, captain! Will you lead your men to victory by making sure that your convoy reaches its destination, or will it fall prey to enemy torpedoes, depriving the allied war effort of the precious supplies you were trusted to protect? Only you can answer the question!
Asid:
DESTORYER: The U-Boat Hunter - gameplay trailer
29 Sept 2020
Asid:
Dev Diary: Locations and gameplay
Thu, 22 October 2020
The recently released gameplay trailer has allowed us to gather a healthy dose of long-awaited feedback. Truth be told, being the lead designer of the game and the director of the trailer as such, I was both overjoyed and anxious about the release. On the one hand, I wished that everybody could finally see it so we could gauge the reaction, but, on the other hand, one can never be 100% sure of their creations until the judgement is passed.
Thankfully, the feedback that we have received has been overwhelmingly positive and it is great to know that the vast majority of viewers enjoyed it and they are happy with the direction that we have chosen for the game. I would like to express my thanks to everybody who shared their opinions, both positive and negative, as that constitutes great help in refining and clarifying the vision for the game.
The sonar room - Real photo / In-game footage
The trailer, however, shows but a small dose of the whole experience and there is still a lot more to come, e.g. the sonar room. The stations located therein will be absolutely essential to hunting submerged U-boats, and trust me - they will submerge once they detect your presence (we are not planning Greyhound-style suicide runs, that’s for sure). Therefore, you will need to dedicate some time and effort to pinpoint their exact position, and it is sonar that will allow you to do so. However, the most crucial complement to sonar was the Tactical Range Recorder (TRR for short), which served to measure the so called ‘range rate’, i.e. the speed at which you are closing in on the target. As you can imagine, the TRR will give you a heads up regarding when to drop your depth charges, so it is a piece of equipment that you may want to know how to use well.
The sonar room - Real photo / In-game footage
The engine room, conversely, is still a little bit vague in the sense that we are not even 100% sure if we can squeeze that part of the game in without making the whole experience too complicated, but this is something that only extensive testing can prove. For now, we are up to our eyes in work regarding the CIC (which has a lot of different stations that need to work perfectly together) and once we are done with it, we will be following it up with the sonar room so that we can actually start hunting :) That being said, let me finish with a quick account of how things are going and where we are with the project, because that’s something that you would probably like to know.
The engine room - Real photo
OK, so the convoy, the escorts, and the first U-boats have already been set up. Basic pilothouse functionalities are in place, so you can steer the ship around. Next, we’ve got observer posts and their binoculars working, along with a 360 degree scale that allows you to make sure which direction you are looking. As regards the observers, they will simply act as your eyes on deck. This will facilitate maneuvering, but will also enable you to use searchlights whenever necessary, and it might so happen that you will need to rely on those searchlights to spot periscopes of those sneaky U-boats that have already managed to slip past your escort screen.
As for the CIC, we’ve got the radar up and running, so there is already a good view of what’s happening on the surface. Now, however, we are working on one of the more complicated devices and gameplay functionalities, i.e. the DRT (the plotting table). We’ve already got the light bug moving around in accordance with our destroyer’s maneuvers, and you can also reset it, if need be. At present, we are focusing on the Parallel Motion Protractor (the arm with the disc and ruler) that will enable you to do exactly what you saw in the trailer, which is to determine what sort of maneuver will allow you to cross the enemy’s path and how much time you would need to get there in order to unleash your depth charge attacks.
Apart from that, the DRT will also encompass a lot of different functionalities that you did not see in the trailer. Those, however, I will gladly discuss with you in the next devlog lest I have nothing new and interesting to report.
...which is very unlikely, but I shouldn’t be spending so much time writing these anyway, right? :P
Destroyer: The U-Boat Hunter
Destroyer: The U-Boat Hunter
Q3 2021
Simulation
Immersive Sim
Naval Combat
Real Time Tactics
World War II
Destroyer: the U-Boat Hunter is an interactive war thriller which seamlessly blends tactical WW2 anti-submarine warfare simulation with a gripping storyline. Take command of a meticulously reconstructed Fletcher-class destroyer and lead your crew against nazi U-boats in the Battle of the Atlantic!
Asid:
Destroyer made it to the top!
Fri, 11 December 2020
Our game is in the Top 100 Indie Games of 2020 on Indie DB
Hi guys!
We have something special to announce!
Destroyer: The U-Boat Hunter has made it to the Top 100 Indie Games of 2020 in the annual Indie of the Year Awards by Indie DB 🙌
You guys are awesome, thank you!
But now we have another battle to win, and we need to ask you for your votes once again. If you want to show your support for our game, please follow the link below and vote for Destroyer: The U-Boat Hunter in the Upcoming Games -> Realistic Sim category 🙏 Voting ends on December 21st.
⚓ https://www.indiedb.com/games/destroyer-the-u-boat-hunter
Cheers!
Iron Wolf Studio
Asid:
Dev Diary: News from the frontline
Fri, 18 December 2020
Hello everyone,
I would like to apologize for the recent drop in activity as far as devlogs are concerned, but, as you might expect, we are working around the clock to make Destroyer a reality. However, I have recently managed to find a few minutes in my busy schedule to let you know how things are and what we are working on. And that is, at present, the question of depth charge attacks carried out by our escort vessels in the game.
Before the invention of the so-called ‘ahead-thrown weapons’ (such as the Hedgehog, the Mousetrap, or the Squid), escort vessels primarily attacked submerged U-boats by firing a barrage of depth charges. To carry out a successful attack, the escort had to detect a submerged U-boat using sonar, the crew had to calculate the optimal dropping point and time, and finally carry out the attack.
Because of how the sonar operated in the forties, escort vessels would always lose contact with the attacked U-boat during the last stage of the attack approach. In 1942, a surface vessel would lose sonar contact with the U-boat at a distance of approximately 175 yards, which would force it to execute the last stage of the approach blindly, relying solely on the previously obtained data. I’m sure you can remember the quick intercept calculation from our gameplay trailer, and a depth charge attack requires a similar, yet even more detailed plot in order to maximize the chance for a hit due to the aforementioned technological shortcomings.
What is more, the final phase of approach was crucial, because it gave the U-boat a brief window during which it could attempt to change course unbeknownst to the escort crew and sneak out from the kill zone. If the U-boat evaded too early, the change of course would be (hopefully) noticed by the sonar operator. If, on the other hand, the U-boat executed the maneuver too late, there wouldn’t be enough time for it to escape from the area of attack before the depth charges went off. Therefore, the best moment for the U-boat’s evasive maneuver was as soon as the sonar lost contact as a result of the escort approaching. Anything too early or too late after that would severely limit the chances of the U-boat sneaking out unscathed.
Below you can see two diagrams showing how the sonar beam was shaped and how the DRT plotter would calculate the right place and time for firing the barrage, based on the previously obtained U-boat’s movement parameters:
As you can see, the escort vessel had the highest chance of hitting the target when crossing the U-boat’s course ahead of its bow, and firing the barrage between 60 and 90 seconds before the U-boat would reach the dropping point (as we have to take into consideration the time required for the depth charges to drop to the assumed depth).
However, the hardest part came after the attack itself, because having lost contact, and without an immediate confirmation of the attack’s success or failure, there were numerous considerations for the Captain and the rest of the escort crew to make.
Those, however, will be discussed in our next devlog.
Stay tuned!
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